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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[MrBeauregard]

Phloston, you have officially over-analyzed Step 1.

 

[phd89]

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.

exactly what I was thinking,

hey Phloston in the greater new york area yet? you mentioned new york a while back if I can recall...taking it in the new york area or Australia?

 

[Phloston]

Phloston, you have officially over-analyzed Step 1.

Yeah.

Anyway (not that anyone cares), but I fly to New York tomorrow. My exam is in Brooklyn in 2.5 weeks.

I just finished my third pass of FA. This time I took notes in a separate notebook on anything I wasn't 1000% sure about. These were probably extensive enough that they'll get me through the 28 hours of flying. In any case, to prevent burnout, I probably won't even want to read them while I'm traveling. Maybe I'll take a liking to SkyMall or watch Finding Nemo on the back of a head rest.

I can't wait till this thing is over with. There is going to be some pretty serious Mexican food and several margaritas on the table when all is said and done.

So yeah, if anyone is in New York mid-December and wants to grab a drink, let me know. I fly back to Australia Christmas Day (I'm Jewish so I don't really care).

 

[volvo2]

Hey Phloston, admire your stamina, mate. I am pretty sure all this effort is going to serve you well for your step 2 exams and as a physician in general. I really hope you get the score you want. Good luck.

 

[tuxa]

Well ..i got my score ..231/83

IMG..not a lot of preparation..no pre exam tests at all (no money for anything online) got some very old bot legged qbank (maybe 400 questions? ) that some people posted in a forum years ago.

I read first aid..maybe 3 or 4 times ...goljan RR (around 70% ..too dense to my taste)..read pathoma book twice...read kaplan qbook ..watched old videos (2007? i think)

I prayed every day, i am a christian ..i think God helped me

It is not an amazing score...but i am really thankful for it. The exam had many things that i saw in the kaplan videos and made annotations in my first aid. And of course heavy on pathology . classic diseases...some behavioral questions ...some calculations ..first aid was good enough for statistic questions ...tons ...tons of ethics..
Well ..i have to start reading for step 2.

 

[glykon]

Well ..i got my score ..231/83

IMG..not a lot of preparation..no pre exam tests at all (no money for anything online) got some very old bot legged qbank (maybe 400 questions? ) that some people posted in a forum years ago.

I read first aid..maybe 3 or 4 times ...goljan RR (around 70% ..too dense to my taste)..read pathoma book twice...read kaplan qbook ..watched old videos (2007? i think)

I prayed every day, i am a christian ..i think God helped me

It is not an amazing score...but i am really thankful for it. The exam had many things that i saw in the kaplan videos and made annotations in my first aid. And of course heavy on pathology . classic diseases...some behavioral questions ...some calculations ..first aid was good enough for statistic questions ...tons ...tons of ethics..
Well ..i have to start reading for step 2.

Congrats, it's >the mean + keeps you in game for most specialties. I think with the resources you had- esp.questions, you did a great job

 

[DrK786]

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.

Quoted to let everyone know this man speaks the truth.

 

[DrK786]

Well ..i got my score ..231/83

IMG..not a lot of preparation..no pre exam tests at all (no money for anything online) got some very old bot legged qbank (maybe 400 questions? ) that some people posted in a forum years ago.

I read first aid..maybe 3 or 4 times ...goljan RR (around 70% ..too dense to my taste)..read pathoma book twice...read kaplan qbook ..watched old videos (2007? i think)

I prayed every day, i am a christian ..i think God helped me

It is not an amazing score...but i am really thankful for it. The exam had many things that i saw in the kaplan videos and made annotations in my first aid. And of course heavy on pathology . classic diseases...some behavioral questions ...some calculations ..first aid was good enough for statistic questions ...tons ...tons of ethics..
Well ..i have to start reading for step 2.

Great job. Congrats to you and I wish you the best for Step 2. Start early and hit that 240+

 

[phd89]

Well ..i got my score ..231/83

IMG..not a lot of preparation..no pre exam tests at all (no money for anything online) got some very old bot legged qbank (maybe 400 questions? ) that some people posted in a forum years ago.

I read first aid..maybe 3 or 4 times ...goljan RR (around 70% ..too dense to my taste)..read pathoma book twice...read kaplan qbook ..watched old videos (2007? i think)

I prayed every day, i am a christian ..i think God helped me

It is not an amazing score...but i am really thankful for it. The exam had many things that i saw in the kaplan videos and made annotations in my first aid. And of course heavy on pathology . classic diseases...some behavioral questions ...some calculations ..first aid was good enough for statistic questions ...tons ...tons of ethics..
Well ..i have to start reading for step 2.

Are you able to tell us your pre exam nbme and uwsa scores and how many you think you got right on the real deal

 

[tuxa]

Are you able to tell us your pre exam nbme and uwsa scores and how many you think you got right on the real deal

No money for any of these resources

I didn't do uworld ...just got some very old transcript that somebody made for a website years ago ..it had maybe 500 questions...no nbme..no uwsa.

Thank you guys for your kind words ! i love this forum ..i have been lurking ...since months ago..

 

[tundri]

Best of luck to you Phloston!!! I hope you break 270+, if anyone deserves it, I think it would be you.

Have a margarita for every concept you learned while preparing for the boards and enjoy NYC to the fullest.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

If one takes this exam on a Friday, do results come out in exactly 19 days 99.9% of the time? Or are there aberrations in this pattern usually?

 

[Phloston]

Should come out in 19 days (3 Wednesdays).

My exam is actually on Friday, the 14th, but I've read that because of the holidays, it will actually take 4, not 3, Wednesdays, so I'm expecting a 26-day wait = WTF! If there's a time that suppression will actually be needed as a real-life defense mechanism, this scenario is fairly self-explanatory.

And thanks, Tundri, I appreciate that. It really is a toss-up though. I'm just hoping that the inevitable handful of maker or breaker WTF questions is on biochem/micro and not some obscure MRI anatomy identification crapshoot.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

Are you sure? From what I gathered, the 4 weeks instead of 3 seems to happen only in the summer when new questions are added and the old ones removed?

EDIT: Yep, found the anecdotal reference. One extra week during Christmas time as well.

 

[stronghold]

Hey Phloston, check your PM

 

[sephonly]

Just some quick feedback from my exam...

Well, molecular biology and anatomy were rampant... I had 3 questions per block on both subjects. Half of the molec bio and anatomy I got were not in First Aid, and the other half that was I forgot some of it. This was the worst part of my exam...

Microbio & Pharm were straightforward, asked a lot of side effects + antidotes. Microbio on my exam was heavy on HIV+ px so know what the common viruses/bugs are for the HIV systems. Also had 2 HAART questions, nothing too difficult.

I didn't have too much behavioral... in fact at most 1/block, which sucks because those are easy gimmes for the most part, although I think I got one wrong (but can't really say, since the answers sometimes sound the same). Biostats... barely 5 on my whole exam, straight forward! Know the equations.

Biochem was fairly represented, and most of it was very simple and straightforward (this was my weakest subject and if I think its straightforward, then well, it is ). The tricky questions were the lab techniques and inheritance (like loss of heterozygosity, etc.). Know that page well! I had 3 from that page alone and I confused 1. Had 1 glycogen storage + 1 lysosomal storage.

Physio was not too bad. I had a lot of resp/renal physio with over 10 choices. I don't think they were too difficult... but because it's time consuming and you want to move on to the next Q there's always that feeling that you might've missed something. But not too difficult. Only 3 audio questions, all on heart sounds. 2 of mine were normal.

Patho was of course heavy. It was from all sections. Not too many histo images, when I did have them the answer could be derived from the stem.

I'll also mention neuroanatomy... when I said before i got 3 anatomy q's per block, I wasn't counting the 10~ i got on neuroanatomy. These were kind of difficult for me... i'm hoping I got at least 7 out of 10 right.

That's about it! Time was an issue for me in the first block, but then I never let it become an issue again for the rest. Fatigue is not really a problem, I never felt tired and could've done 2 more blocks if I had to. But one thing I'll warn eveyrone against is checking their answers in the break time. Nothing good can come from this and I wish I didn't. Confirming you were wrong in the middle of an exam is just not helpful, ever. If you want to review something you can... but honestly, it didn't help me! I'd just relax and close my eyes and stop worrying about notes next time.

**Don't take anatomy & molecular bio lightly. I had over 50 Q's on these two topics (including neuroanatomy) and it KILLED my confidence throughout the exam! Don't let this happen to you

GL guys, and please say a prayer when you read my post =)

 

[Phloston]

Just some quick feedback from my exam...

Well, molecular biology and anatomy were rampant... I had 3 questions per block on both subjects. Half of the molec bio and anatomy I got were not in First Aid, and the other half that was I forgot some of it. This was the worst part of my exam...

Microbio & Pharm were straightforward, asked a lot of side effects + antidotes. Microbio on my exam was heavy on HIV+ px so know what the common viruses/bugs are for the HIV systems. Also had 2 HAART questions, nothing too difficult.

I didn't have too much behavioral... in fact at most 1/block, which sucks because those are easy gimmes for the most part, although I think I got one wrong (but can't really say, since the answers sometimes sound the same). Biostats... barely 5 on my whole exam, straight forward! Know the equations.

Biochem was fairly represented, and most of it was very simple and straightforward (this was my weakest subject and if I think its straightforward, then well, it is ). The tricky questions were the lab techniques and inheritance (like loss of heterozygosity, etc.). Know that page well! I had 3 from that page alone and I confused 1. Had 1 glycogen storage + 1 lysosomal storage.

Physio was not too bad. I had a lot of resp/renal physio with over 10 choices. I don't think they were too difficult... but because it's time consuming and you want to move on to the next Q there's always that feeling that you might've missed something. But not too difficult. Only 3 audio questions, all on heart sounds. 2 of mine were normal.

Patho was of course heavy. It was from all sections. Not too many histo images, when I did have them the answer could be derived from the stem.

I'll also mention neuroanatomy... when I said before i got 3 anatomy q's per block, I wasn't counting the 10~ i got on neuroanatomy. These were kind of difficult for me... i'm hoping I got at least 7 out of 10 right.

That's about it! Time was an issue for me in the first block, but then I never let it become an issue again for the rest. Fatigue is not really a problem, I never felt tired and could've done 2 more blocks if I had to. But one thing I'll warn eveyrone against is checking their answers in the break time. Nothing good can come from this and I wish I didn't. Confirming you were wrong in the middle of an exam is just not helpful, ever. If you want to review something you can... but honestly, it didn't help me! I'd just relax and close my eyes and stop worrying about notes next time.

**Don't take anatomy & molecular bio lightly. I had over 50 Q's on these two topics (including neuroanatomy) and it KILLED my confidence throughout the exam! Don't let this happen to you

GL guys, and please say a prayer when you read my post =)

I will seriously cry if I get that much anatomy. Were they mostly straight-forward or were they the "identify this obscure structure on this MRI"-type questions?

As far as checking answers is concerned, as much as you're probably 100% right that confirming yourself wrong on something mid-exam would not be confidence-boosting, it was still probably smart that you did that because I've read enough posts where people have gotten repeats in subsequent blocks, where having checked answers proved beneficial. So I'd say if you've forgotten a HY concept that's showed up in a question, definitely check it mid-exam, but if it was some esoteria, don't bother.

And what do you mean "2 of mine were normal" for the heart sounds?

 

[Old Style Nanny]

I'll also mention neuroanatomy... when I said before i got 3 anatomy q's per block, I wasn't counting the 10~ i got on neuroanatomy. These were kind of difficult for me... i'm hoping I got at least 7 out of 10 right.

I am really interested in seeing how your curve is going to be and how well you scored.

Anyway did you find FA adequate for your neuroanat questions?

And you mean you had more than double the number of general anatomy questions as the neuroanatomy ones? Wow.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

I will seriously cry if I get that much anatomy. Were they mostly straight-forward or were they the "identify this obscure structure on this MRI"-type questions?

You still have over 2 weeks to the exam right? So, get at least FA Anatomy down cold? Why take a chance?

 

[rocketbooster]

You still have over 2 weeks to the exam right? So, get at least FA Anatomy down cold? Why take a chance?

Most of the anatomy is neuro and musculoskeletal. Review the neuro + msk anatomy + physiology in FA as well as the Webpath questions with images during the last few days before your test and you'll be good. I did that, saw a few anatomy imaging questions identical to the Webpath ones, nailed all the spinal chord slices and gross brain imaging and MSK-injury related questions with no problem. I was never amazing at anatomy during school. I just studied the high yield anatomy topics right before the Step 1 and scored maximum points on that section (according to the score sheet). You know these topics will be on there, so prepare for them.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

Most of the anatomy is neuro and musculoskeletal. Review the neuro + msk anatomy + physiology in FA as well as the Webpath questions with images during the last few days before your test and you'll be good. I did that, saw a few anatomy imaging questions identical to the Webpath ones, nailed all the spinal chord slices and gross brain imaging and MSK-injury related questions with no problem. I was never amazing at anatomy during school. I just studied the high yield anatomy topics right before the Step 1 and scored maximum points on that section (according to the score sheet). You know these topics will be on there, so prepare for them.

This WebPath? http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/HISTHTML/HISTO.html

Seems like it has a ton of slides. Did you do them all?

 

[Phloston]

This WebPath? http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/HISTHTML/HISTO.html

Seems like it has a ton of slides. Did you do them all?

I'm not really sure which ones he's referring to because the Webpath questions are more just pathology than anything else. The anatomy isn't in question format; it's just slides, and I don't see spinal cross-sections, just the brain.

On the other hand, Rocketbooster, if you can be more specific, that'd be gnarly.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

On the other hand, Rocketbooster, if you can be more specific, that'd be gnarly.

Sorry to digress, but what's gnarly? Is it an ozzie slang?

 

[gulmohr]

Gnarly? I always assumed it was more of an Americanism. Term beloved of skater boys.

Since we're digressing, could I get some advice/input? I've taken 4 assessment tests so far.

UWSA 1 (1.5 months ago) = 244
UWSA 2 (3 weeks ago) = 242
NBME 12 (10 days ago) = 221
NBME 11 (today) = 250

I scored badly in biochem/molecular, behavioral, genetics and anatomy on NBME 12 so spent the previous ten days brushing up on those. Didn't do much else. Got better scores in today's NBME on all those with exception of anatomy/embryo/histo which were still pretty weak.


My exam is in a week. So, which predictor should I rely on? Please don't tell me to take another NBME online because I'm flat broke. My study has been pretty erratic and drawn out over a long period of time. Plan to just do FA in the remaining few days and hope for the best but just wanted to know if this kind of variation is normal?

 

[rocketbooster]

I looked through the neuronatomy pics and also found the radiologic imaging questions to be very useful:

http://courses.path.utah.edu/classes/webpath/radiol/radquiz/quizsidx.htm

 

[Phloston]

Gnarly? I always assumed it was more of an Americanism. Term beloved of skater boys.

Since we're digressing, could I get some advice/input? I've taken 4 assessment tests so far.

UWSA 1 (1.5 months ago) = 244
UWSA 2 (3 weeks ago) = 242
NBME 12 (10 days ago) = 221
NBME 11 (today) = 250

I scored badly in biochem/molecular, behavioral, genetics and anatomy on NBME 12 so spent the previous ten days brushing up on those. Didn't do much else. Got better scores in today's NBME on all those with exception of anatomy/embryo/histo which were still pretty weak.


My exam is in a week. So, which predictor should I rely on? Please don't tell me to take another NBME online because I'm flat broke. My study has been pretty erratic and drawn out over a long period of time. Plan to just do FA in the remaining few days and hope for the best but just wanted to know if this kind of variation is normal?

Sit another NBME. The 250 is definitely solid, but people's performances tend to generally be an average of their NBMEs. If you take another one today and get a similar score, you'll know you're actually in that range. One test can sometimes be a fluke (sometimes even lower than where you really are).

Just to give you an idea, I took NBME3 five months-out, took NBME5 two months-out, and I'm saving NBMEs 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 all for the final ~10 days or so. That way I walk in having a very clear idea of what to expect as an outcome +/- 3-4 points. So just as any of us would want a 275, for instance, if my NBME average in the final 10 days is 245, then I can expect around that, despite my fantasies.

 

[gulmohr]

Sit another NBME. The 250 is definitely solid, but people's performances tend to generally be an average of their NBMEs. If you take another one today and get a similar score, you'll know you're actually in that range. One test can sometimes be a fluke (sometimes even lower than where you really are).

Just to give you an idea, I took NBME3 five months-out, took NBME5 two months-out, and I'm saving NBMEs 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 all for the final ~10 days or so. That way I walk in having a very clear idea of what to expect as an outcome +/- 3-4 points.

Can't take an online one but will consider using other means for 13 maybe. Otherwise, just going to cram FA in the next five days. Thanks for replying, though.

 

[Phloston]

I looked through the neuronatomy pics and also found the radiologic imaging questions to be very useful:

http://courses.path.utah.edu/classes/webpath/radiol/radquiz/quizsidx.htm

What in the world?? I just back-arrowed and I've never seen this website before.

I've always used this Webpath: http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html

I didn't know there were TWO Webpath websites, unless I've just been on crack for the past year.

That helps a lot though, thanks for posting that.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

I looked through the neuronatomy pics and also found the radiologic imaging questions to be very useful:

http://courses.path.utah.edu/classes/webpath/radiol/radquiz/quizsidx.htm

Thanks a bunch mate. I'm glad I asked! Even I would've never found it.

 

[bbaggins]

Just some quick feedback from my exam...

Well, molecular biology and anatomy were rampant... I had 3 questions per block on both subjects. Half of the molec bio and anatomy I got were not in First Aid, and the other half that was I forgot some of it. This was the worst part of my exam...

**Don't take anatomy & molecular bio lightly. I had over 50 Q's on these two topics (including neuroanatomy) and it KILLED my confidence throughout the exam! Don't let this happen to you

Thanks for the report.

Question for you sephonly, and anyone else who may know. What specifically do you mean when you refer to molecular biology? For some courses and review books, molecular biology is grouped with biochem, or cell biology, or they're all put together. I'm wondering because it seems like it's becoming a more commonly tested subject, and one I will need to study more so I want to make sure I'm going for the correct material.

 

[rocketbooster]

What in the world?? I just back-arrowed and I've never seen this website before.

I've always used this Webpath: http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html

I didn't know there were TWO Webpath websites, unless I've just been on crack for the past year.

That helps a lot though, thanks for posting that.

Well I mean, they're both from the Utah med school server. You were just clicking on a subsection of it from google, I think? I don't know...basically all the advice on anatomy I gave you was from a Step 1 post on here that I read like a year before my test. Someone asked what to study for anatomy and a recent test taker at the time posted everything I just told you. A year later I followed that advice and it definitely helped. No clue which post that was at this point.

Those 50 or so radiologic questions with pics might kick your ass, but definitely worth doing. I think I only got like 50% correct when I did them right before my test lol. It made me a little nervous since it reminded me of my very first UW scores, but they definitely were responsible for getting 4-5 questions correct that I would have either missed or would have spent a long time on second-guessing myself.

And as for spinal chord and brain sections, I reviewed my notes from school because our neuro module went into crazy depth on that. Definitely be familiar with the locations of the main tracts and nuclei on these slides, especially different parts of brainstem, and know what deficits you would have based on lesions in different areas of the slice. For gross brain anatomy, I looked through the Webpath neuroanatomy just to make sure I knew where the putamen, caudate, etc. were from different angles.

 

[Phloston]

Well I mean, they're both from the Utah med school server. You were just clicking on a subsection of it from google, I think? I don't know...basically all the advice on anatomy I gave you was from a Step 1 post on here that I read like a year before my test. Someone asked what to study for anatomy and a recent test taker at the time posted everything I just told you. A year later I followed that advice and it definitely helped. No clue which post that was at this point.

Those 50 or so radiologic questions with pics might kick your ass, but definitely worth doing. I think I only got like 50% correct when I did them right before my test lol. It made me a little nervous since it reminded me of my very first UW scores, but they definitely were responsible for getting 4-5 questions correct that I would have either missed or would have spent a long time on second-guessing myself.

And as for spinal chord and brain sections, I reviewed my notes from school because our neuro module went into crazy depth on that. Definitely be familiar with the locations of the main tracts and nuclei on these slides, especially different parts of brainstem, and know what deficits you would have based on lesions in different areas of the slice. For gross brain anatomy, I looked through the Webpath neuroanatomy just to make sure I knew where the putamen, caudate, etc. were from different angles.

Lol. Spinal CHORD, Rocketbooster? What, are we playing music now?

I'll definitely look into the radiology pics/questions before the exam. I really appreciate you posting that link.

I have that Webpath link I had posted up above on my favorites bar, but I thought it was already fairly extensive and didn't know there were other realms to the website. After all, FA mentions Webpath in its resource section as having ~1100 questions, and I can tell you that the questions I've done were just about that many from Webpath, no more, whereas the link you've posted has over 2900 under the examinations tab. In other words, based on FA, I had no reason to inquire as to whether there were more questions. Oh well, I can't do anything about it now. Fortunately, I feel ready to take the USMLE right now with respect to path. If my path sucked, then I'd be angry I hadn't encountered this website earlier.

Needless to say (as I ramble), my anatomy has never been stellar, so you've helped assuage me a little. Thanks so much for the help.

 

[rocketbooster]

Good luck!

 

[sephonly]

I will seriously cry if I get that much anatomy. Were they mostly straight-forward or were they the "identify this obscure structure on this MRI"-type questions?

As far as checking answers is concerned, as much as you're probably 100% right that confirming yourself wrong on something mid-exam would not be confidence-boosting, it was still probably smart that you did that because I've read enough posts where people have gotten repeats in subsequent blocks, where having checked answers proved beneficial. So I'd say if you've forgotten a HY concept that's showed up in a question, definitely check it mid-exam, but if it was some esoteria, don't bother.

And what do you mean "2 of mine were normal" for the heart sounds?

Yeah.. I was hurting too when I got the anatomy. Some of it I should've known (like which artery supplies the structure that is most likely to be damaged in X surgery or X injury). But some were MRI's pointing to random structures asking to name the muscle.

By normal heart sounds I mean one of the answer choices was "normal heart sounds" and that's the one I picked twice (on the 3 I had). For e.g. a healthy girl on a physical exam and she had normal heart sounds, or a kid who was coming in for a routine check.

I'd say you definitely have to know every bit of anatomy in FA for sure. Don't take it lightly.. had 5-6 brachial plexus + lower extremity questions too.. those were the ones I got right (I hope)

 

[sephonly]

Thanks for the report.

Question for you sephonly, and anyone else who may know. What specifically do you mean when you refer to molecular biology? For some courses and review books, molecular biology is grouped with biochem, or cell biology, or they're all put together. I'm wondering because it seems like it's becoming a more commonly tested subject, and one I will need to study more so I want to make sure I'm going for the correct material.

When I mean molecular biology I'm not counting the metabolism or the nutrition portion of the section in First Aid, but the first few sections on Cell Bio, Lab techniques & Genetics. One question I remember was asking about some function of peroxisomes, something I hadn't read about in a long long time. Don't let my post scare you... the rest of the exam was very much doable. It's just the Cell Bio & Anatomy that I'm warning everyone to not take lightly as I did.

 

[sephonly]

I am really interested in seeing how your curve is going to be and how well you scored.

Anyway did you find FA adequate for your neuroanat questions?

And you mean you had more than double the number of general anatomy questions as the neuroanatomy ones? Wow.

I kid you not blocks 4 & 5 were loaded with anatomy questions. I felt like I was giving an anatomy exam. Most anat was GI/Repro and of course Neuro. I felt Neuroanatomy from First Aid held up pretty well, yeah. FA neuroanatomy is good enough.

 

[rahulmbbsmd]

Thank you for webpath link and sharing your experience .


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No matter what at 06,12,18,00

 

[mayn]

Well.. I sat my step one on the 29th. I think it wasn't too bad.. though I'll truly know after I get my score.

The layout was exactly like uworld, so it seemed familiar from the get go. As some people have mentioned, the cardiac auscultation is also extremely cool. However.. one question tripped me up, with a patient having a 'bounding pulse', bp of 150/60, and I could hear the aortic regurge murmur near the apex.. however.. 'aortic regurgitation/insufficiency' wasn't an answer choice.. That was.. weird/frustrating.

I had a few obscure micro questions... a couple of fungi questions with pictures. Some questions on bacterial genetics too.

I saw a few of the weird molecular questions, which I presume to be 'experimental', but even those could be figured out with logic, like a small puzzle on some IQ test. However, when its block 6.. and some fatigue sets in, with not a lot of time left in the block.. its hard to work a stupid puzzle out.

The most surprising thing was the amount of biostats that I had, it was insane. None of the questions were particularly 'hard' questions, every possible calculation was on my exam, but the sheer amount of biostats I had was surprising.. I'll even say I had more biostats q's than pharm q's. (~ 23 biostats q's)

I think I definitely over-studied path and pharm.. not too difficult, or nothing I hadn't seen before..

Pharm was surprisingly simple.. with not too many tricky ones.

In concordance with the recent ongoing trend; there was a decent amount of anatomy on my test. I had quite a few CT/MRI scans (around 6-7). Abdomen + pelvis/perineum was the major target for anatomy questions on my exam. A weird chest X-ray question that with the power of google I still can't figure out what they were asking..


I think the question style was very similar to NBME q's.. doing lots of questions (uworld, usmlerx, all the NBMEs) was probably the best thing I did.
I think overall some questions were extremely straight forward (around 60%), some were somewhat straight forward (20-25%).. and the last 15-20% being pretty tough, with having narrowed the answers down to 2-3 choices.

Oh.. 2 questions were literally copy pasted from those free usmle 150 questions.


Here is my progression:
3 months ago: Nbme 5 = 214
3 months ago: Nbme 11 = 231
2 months ago: Nbme 12 = 221 (freaked out)
1 month ago: Nbme 13 = 242
5 days before Step: Nbme 7 = 264 (hoping this wasn't some crazy outlier)

Actual score = ?? will find out Dec 20th

 

[Phloston]

The most surprising thing was the amount of biostats that I had, it was insane. None of the questions were particularly 'hard' questions, every possible calculation was on my exam (ppv, npv, number to treat, number to harm, sensitivity, specficity, etc), but the sheer amount of biostats I had was surprising.. I'll even say I had more biostats q's than pharm q's. (~ 23 biostats q's)

In concordance with the recent ongoing trend; there was a decent amount of anatomy on my test. I had quite a few CT/MRI scans (around 6-7).. Lots and lots of questions on the ureter.. seriously.. like 4 CT scans for the ureter and it getting blocked at different places. Abdomen + pelvis/perineum was the major target for anatomy questions on my exam. A weird chest X-ray question that with the power of google I still can't figure out what they were asking..

I think for the longest time I've been afraid of having a lot of biostats show up on my test, but this may have actually been lucky because at least you know what you're doing instead of trying to analyze some recondite MRI cross-section (even though you got quite a few of these as well...). But yeah, I agree with you, what the freak is the deal with all of these anatomy-heavy tests showing up lately?

I think I definitely over-studied path and pharm.. not too difficult, or nothing I hadn't seen before.. though I got stuck on one vague question deciding between turcut's syndrome Vs tuberous sclerosis (patient with 'dystrophic calcifications' in the brain, and q asked what else to look for in the patient).
Pharm was surprisingly simple.. (i.e toxicity of aminoglycosides).. with not too many tricky ones.

At the risk of setting you off, I would think dystrophic calcification --> meningioma --> NF2. Obviously you saw the question and I didn't, but otherwise I'd be just as uncertain..

Here is my progression:
3 months ago: Nbme 5 = 214
3 months ago: Nbme 11 = 231
2 months ago: Nbme 12 = 221 (freaked out)
1 month ago: Nbme 13 = 242
5 days before Step: Nbme 7 = 264 (hoping this wasn't some crazy outlier)

Actual score = ?? will find out Dec 20th

Crazy NBME7 score. It seems to be a fairly good predictor just so you know. I've got my fingers crossed for you. Thanks so much for the post.

 

[usmlefighter]

I think the question style was very similar to NBME q's.. doing lots of questions (uworld, usmlerx, all the NBMEs) was probably the best thing I did.
I think overall some questions were extremely straight forward (around 60%), some were somewhat straight forward (20-25%).. and the last 15-20% being pretty tough, with having narrowed the answers down to 2-3 choices.

Oh.. 2 questions were literally copy pasted from those free usmle 138 questions.


Here is my progression:
3 months ago: Nbme 5 = 214
3 months ago: Nbme 11 = 231
2 months ago: Nbme 12 = 221 (freaked out)
1 month ago: Nbme 13 = 242
5 days before Step: Nbme 7 = 264 (hoping this wasn't some crazy outlier)

Actual score = ?? will find out Dec 20th

Do you recommend Kaplan q bank against usmle rx? people say usmle rx has few errors framing qs. What do you recommend apart from UW Q Bank

 

[mayn]

Crazy NBME7 score. It seems to be a fairly good predictor just so you know. I've got my fingers crossed for you. Thanks so much for the post.

Thanks man, hopefully it plays out well (anything about 250 would make me happy). Good luck with you're test in a few weeks, no doubts in my mind you're going to kill it.
Also, thanks for you're advice about 2 months ago on running thru usmlerx (finished it in 13 days).. I believe that was a huge factor on the big score jump on nbme 7.

Do you recommend Kaplan q bank against usmle rx? people say usmle rx has few errors framing qs. What do you recommend apart from UW Q Bank

Usmlerx definitely has some errors, but to be honest.. the amount of questions with an error isn't that crazy, its not like half the question bank is full of errors.
I get even a few errors is unacceptable for a lot of people, but I was able to look overlook the occasional discrepancy pretty easily.
I thought it was brilliant to drill in simple facts in you're head, that are straight out of first aid. Loved usmlerx.

I finished kaplan qbank earlier in my last semester, and I found it to be decent, but very heavy on nit picky details. So.. I would say in terms of usefulness uworld all the way, then usmlerx, then kaplan.
I will say kaplan's path questions were good.. also they have pure 'molecular' questions (i believe around 40-60 questions) that were pretty solid for testing the nitty gritty details of pure molecular bio stuff.

 

[usmlefighter]

Thanks man, hopefully it plays out well (anything about 250 would make me happy). Good luck with you're test in a few weeks, no doubts in my mind you're going to kill it.
Also, thanks for you're advice about 2 months ago on running thru usmlerx (finished it in 13 days).. I believe that was a huge factor on the big score jump on nbme 7.




Usmlerx definitely has some errors, but to be honest.. the amount of questions with an error isn't that crazy, its not like half the question bank is full of errors.
I get even a few errors is unacceptable for a lot of people, but I was able to look overlook the occasional discrepancy pretty easily.
I thought it was brilliant to drill in simple facts in you're head, that are straight out of first aid. Loved usmlerx.

I finished kaplan qbank earlier in my last semester, and I found it to be decent, but very heavy on nit picky details. So.. I would say in terms of usefulness uworld all the way, then usmlerx, then kaplan.
I will say kaplan's path questions were good.. also they have pure 'molecular' questions (i believe around 40-60 questions) that were pretty solid for testing the nitty gritty details of pure molecular bio stuff.

Thanks for your suggestion. Hope you get your desired score and may be as you said usmle rx could be reason for jump in nbme 7. great. Just tell me overall big picture of exam and your bottom line suggestion.thank u

 

[Phloston]

Now that I think of it, mayn, I'm surprised you hadn't sat NBME6 immediately after that performance on NBME7, considering you weren't sure whether the latter was in fact a fluke. Is there a reason you didn't sit NBME6? Because it's still available online.

 

[mayn]

Now that I think of it, mayn, I'm surprised you hadn't sat NBME6 immediately after that performance on NBME7, considering you weren't sure whether the latter was in fact a fluke. Is there a reason you didn't sit NBME6? Because it's still available online.

I had used up form 6 offline from a pdf file. I didn't really sit it as an exam.. but rather spread out over 2 days in my MS2. After NBME 7 I didn't have any test left.

However, about a week before NBME 7 I sat UWSA2 and got a 257.. and since that generally over-predicts for most people, NBME 7's score was even more surprising.

I hope 7 wasn't a fluke, but.. it somehow probably was. I just hope I get a 250+ on the real thing.

 

[gulmohr]

Gave the thing yesterday. Very unhappy because I missed a lot of gimmes. Burnt out a bit and lost focus. Biggest regret is definitely not doing First Aid more. 85 - 90% of the information they wanted was in First Aid.

CT/MRIs were pretty simple for the most part. Couple of brainstem questions, two heart murmurs in which the stem wasn't much help. The usual. Physiology was huge. Dozens of arrow questions where you were pretty okay with two of the variables but had no idea what to do with the third one they'd thrown in. Biochem and pharm were pretty simple for the most part. Same for Micro. Had a few blood smears asking you to identify the organism. Behavioral was alright. Conrad 100 cases and Dr. Daugherty of Kaplan are helpful if this is a weak subject. There were a couple of tough Biostats questions; one where they showed you a meta-study and you had to draw conclusions from it. Weird correlation coefficient question too. Everything was a blur after the fourth block for me and I had trouble doing questions that required reasoning or calculations in the later blocks.

I took NBME 12 (221) two weeks before the exam and NBME 11 (250) a week before. Got 244 and 242 in the UWSAs month or so out. After the exam, I'm inclined to think that the NBME 11 result was a complete fluke and at this point I'd be okay if I crossed 230.

To anyone a few weeks from the exam who's done with Uworld, I'd advise to just spend as much time as possible on First Aid. If you have that down cold, I see no reason why you shouldn't comfortably get 240+ as long as you have your basic concepts down (specially of Physio).

 

[Phloston]

Gave the thing yesterday. Very unhappy because I missed a lot of gimmes. Burnt out a bit and lost focus. Biggest regret is definitely not doing First Aid more. 85 - 90% of the information they wanted was in First Aid.

CT/MRIs were pretty simple for the most part. Couple of brainstem questions, two heart murmurs in which the stem wasn't much help. The usual. Physiology was huge. Dozens of arrow questions where you were pretty okay with two of the variables but had no idea what to do with the third one they'd thrown in. Biochem and pharm were pretty simple for the most part. Same for Micro. Had a few blood smears asking you to identify the organism. Behavioral was alright. Conrad 100 cases and Dr. Daugherty of Kaplan are helpful if this is a weak subject. There were a couple of tough Biostats questions; one where they showed you a meta-study and you had to draw conclusions from it. Weird correlation coefficient question too. Everything was a blur after the fourth block for me and I had trouble doing questions that required reasoning or calculations in the later blocks.

I took NBME 12 (221) two weeks before the exam and NBME 11 (250) a week before. Got 244 and 242 in the UWSAs month or so out. After the exam, I'm inclined to think that the NBME 11 result was a complete fluke and at this point I'd be okay if I crossed 230.

To anyone a few weeks from the exam who's done with Uworld, I'd advise to just spend as much time as possible on First Aid. If you have that down cold, I see no reason why you shouldn't comfortably get 240+ as long as you have your basic concepts down (specially of Physio).

Thanks for the input, bud.

Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say you wish you had done FA more?

 

[gulmohr]

Basically, in the last 7-10 days, make sure that you do a final concentrated pass. I didn't do that for some units and just plain forgot a lot of simple recalls solely due to that reason even though I'd gone through first aid a few times before that. I know you reckon that anatomy and behavioral are some of your weaker areas but based on my test, I wouldn't stress out too much regarding the obscurity or difficulty of the questions. I'm just very ****ing disappointed with myself because I feel I didn't achieve my true potential.

Oh yeah, even if you've never had sleep latency issues in the past, I'd recommend experimenting with a sleeping aid at least a couple of times before the night of the actual exam to see how you react to it the next day in terms of hangover. I've never had any problems going to sleep in my life (quite the opposite, if truth be told) but it took me nearly 1.5 hours to fall asleep the night before the exam.

 

[Phloston]

Basically, in the last 7-10 days, make sure that you do a final concentrated pass. I didn't do that for some units and just plain forgot a lot of simple recalls solely due to that reason even though I'd gone through first aid a few times before that. I know you reckon that anatomy and behavioral are some of your weaker areas but based on my test, I wouldn't stress out too much regarding the obscurity or difficulty of the questions. I'm just very ****ing disappointed with myself because I feel I didn't achieve my true potential.

Oh yeah, even if you've never had sleep latency issues in the past, I'd recommend experimenting with a sleeping aid at least a couple of times before the night of the actual exam to see how you react to it the next day in terms of hangover. I've never had any problems going to sleep in my life (quite the opposite, if truth be told) but it took me nearly 1.5 hours to fall asleep the night before the exam.

I really appeciate the input. I'm struggling to put my ADD aside and focus on FA right now, but I'm just trying to push on. Your advice helps.

As far as sleep is concerned, yeah, I pray to Gd that won't be an issue.. I had actually changed both my testing centre and test date (moved it up by an entire week) specifically so that I could lock in a 12:30pm slot, so perhaps that will make things a bit more manageable than the 8 or 8:30am appointments that 99% of people deal with.

 

[gulmohr]

I really appeciate the input. I'm struggling to put my ADD aside and focus on FA right now, but I'm just trying to push on. Your advice helps.

As far as sleep is concerned, yeah, I pray to Gd that won't be an issue.. I had actually changed both my testing centre and test date (moved it up by an entire week) specifically so that I could lock in a 12:30pm slot, so perhaps that will make things a bit more manageable than the 8 or 8:30am appointments that 99% of people deal with.

If you haven't written it down in FA somewhere, then it probably won't matter. Believe me, at the end of the exam, you'll be much more upset if you miss an easy recall that was in first aid than some obscure oncogene or muscle attachment site.

I also think that 5% of the questions were pure IQ testers. Lot of other questions required significant reasoning ability as well. Very, very important to get a good night's sleep beforehand so you can specially deal with these ones as well as maintain optimum levels of recall.

EDIT: Okay, I don't want to freak people out with the 5%. I'm revising it down to 2.39%.

 

[phd89]

If you haven't written it down in FA somewhere, then it probably won't matter. Believe me, at the end of the exam, you'll be much more upset if you miss an easy recall that was in first aid than some obscure oncogene or muscle attachment site.

I also think that 5% of the questions were pure IQ testers. Lot of other questions required significant reasoning ability as well. Very, very important to get a good night's sleep beforehand so you can specially deal with these ones as well as maintain optimum levels of recall.

EDIT: Okay, I don't want to freak people out with the 5%. I'm revising it down to 2.39%.

would you recommend another selective round of uworld weaknesses the week of the exam, along with FA or just FA