Official 2014 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[900829]

Too early? Pff nah it's not.
It's our time to shine bright like a diamond!
It's our time to make step 1 our Goliath.

. . . and may the odds be ever in your favor.
WE GOT THIS!

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[PapezCirDead]

Anyone get their scores??!!!!!!

Yes I have just got it

 

[Sushi5]

Yes I have just got it

got it. do you know about equivalent score to old scale?

 

[blahblah56]

Congrats! I take this as good news?

 

[pavel13]

Hoping for good news for you guys?!!

Either way congrats on being done

What was the average?

 

[PapezCirDead]

Filanl

Yes I have just got it

Congrats! I take this as good news?

Hoping for good news for you guys?!!

Either way congrats on being done

What was the average?

Thanks God.

I got 263
The average is 228 and SD of 21
No 2 Digits score reported

 

[Watshoody]

Got my score today ( thought I was gonna get it next week)

210 -> slight disappointment , but oh well gotta move on, gotta kill step 2, rotations and everything else !

Wished I did a little better !!!! Kinda bummed !

 

[oman125]

Filanl




Thanks God.

I got 263
The average is 228 and SD of 21
No 2 Digits score reported

Wow killer! congrats! solid score no doubt

 

[fedore]

Congrats PapezCirDead, fantastic score:
Would You mind shared us your schedule or / and Tips to achieve that amazing score.
Thanks

 

[Road734]

Hi everyone,

Since you many have taken the test and from what I have read, with due diligence, I was hoping maybe someone has a solution to this.
I'm taking some practice nbme tests but all it tells me is if I did below or above average on each subject. I really need to know which question number I got wrong and basically review that question. Is there a way to do this? I feel it has to be, because this is just plain fundamental to studying.

The main reason I want to do this is to see if I'm scoring the way I am because of dumb mistakes or actual gaps. I've done UW Q's and tests and I know where I stand with those but this is just puzzling.

If there is a solution please let me know. If you can think of another litmus test to gauge myself let me know.

All help is really appreciated.

 

[Halothane27]

Hi everyone,

Since you many have taken the test and from what I have read, with due diligence, I was hoping maybe someone has a solution to this.
I'm taking some practice nbme tests but all it tells me is if I did below or above average on each subject. I really need to know which question number I got wrong and basically review that question. Is there a way to do this? I feel it has to be, because this is just plain fundamental to studying.

The main reason I want to do this is to see if I'm scoring the way I am because of dumb mistakes or actual gaps. I've done UW Q's and tests and I know where I stand with those but this is just puzzling.

If there is a solution please let me know. If you can think of another litmus test to gauge myself let me know.

All help is really appreciated.

From my understanding as far as NBME goes.. I think the expanded format is the only way to go about with it. That way you can go back and review the ones you got wrong. They won't have the right answer marked unfortunately and they don't show you the ones you got right either. Since the marking is obscure its hard to exactly tell which subjects that question falls under, could be multi-tiered for all we know.

I completely agree with you... it makes studying a bit more structured. Hopefully somebody can tell us more if there are alternative ways or options.

 

[PapezCirDead]

Hi everyone,

Since you many have taken the test and from what I have read, with due diligence, I was hoping maybe someone has a solution to this.
I'm taking some practice nbme tests but all it tells me is if I did below or above average on each subject. I really need to know which question number I got wrong and basically review that question. Is there a way to do this? I feel it has to be, because this is just plain fundamental to studying.

The main reason I want to do this is to see if I'm scoring the way I am because of dumb mistakes or actual gaps. I've done UW Q's and tests and I know where I stand with those but this is just puzzling.

If there is a solution please let me know. If you can think of another litmus test to gauge myself let me know.

All help is really appreciated.

Hi
If you are taking bout the NBME Online assessment test you have 2 types of subscriptions the regular for $50 and the Extended report ones for $60
always use the extended report ones because the report tells you what questions you got wrong.. If you have the Extended form you go to the report and start by page 1, the score assessment results and performance, at the left bottom part of the page you click on next and go to the next page, number of wrong questions in total and each discipline and system, click on the total number of wrong questions in blue you get to those questions. The problem is that you do not get an explanation for your wrong answer, or the right answer, neither you can review your marked ones that you think that you made correct merely by chance or you were not sure about. So regain access only to the wrong ones, from there you have to search forums and websites for the right answer (some of them are not accurate and are no more than the most agreed to be the right answer) I hated this process because it is very time consuming and literally caused me headaches.
Regarding the basic service that you get for $50 I have no idea because all I used were with extended report, from what I have heard, in those you can't know behind your estimated score so you can't get a chance to see and know what you made wrong.

Good Luck

 

[PapezCirDead]

From my understanding as far as NBME goes.. I think the expanded format is the only way to go about with it. That way you can go back and review the ones you got wrong. They won't have the right answer marked unfortunately and they don't show you the ones you got right either. Since the marking is obscure its hard to exactly tell which subjects that question falls under, could be multi-tiered for all we know.

I completely agree with you... it makes studying a bit more structured. Hopefully somebody can tell us more if there are alternative ways or options.

The alternate is the not as good which is searching through the web and getting the same NBME that you made online. Then you mark the same answers that you made on your online NBME and research the websites and forum for the correct answers... I would not recommend that for all the reasons in the world, illegal, not accurate and very very time consuming (time is money) so would happily pay the extra $10... By the way money is not easy for me at all, but as I said time is money...

 

[PapezCirDead]

Congrats PapezCirDead, fantastic score:
Would You mind shared us your schedule or / and Tips to achieve that amazing score.
Thanks

Thanks
I'll be glad to help, So I'll prepare one and post it soon.

Good Luck

 

[Distant]

Thanks God.

I got 263
The average is 228 and SD of 21
No 2 Digits score reported

Congratulations,
You deserve no less with the effort you spent in completing 3 Q banks "Tip of the Ice Berg"
I would like to know more about your preparation and NBME Scores and Trends.

Regards,

 

[lxc]

I'm done with Step 1!!!

As promised, I've included an overview of my study schedule below:
Materials used:
First Aid
Pathoma
Picmonic
Kaplan QBank
UWorld QBank

Timeline: 12 weeks total. 6 weeks of systems-based studying and relevant Kaplan QBank questions, followed by 6 weeks of reviewing FA while doing random, timed blocks of UWorld QBank, UWSAs, and NBME.

Kaplan QBank: completed half, averaging 68%
UWorld QBank: completed all, ~75% first-pass average
UWSA1: 230
UWSA2: 230
NBME 13: 230
NBME 11: 234
NBME 15: 239
NBME 16: 239
Real deal: TBA...

Test day:
I was really nervous going into the test because everyone on SDN kept saying it's profoundly harder than anything you see on UWorld or the NBMEs. However, I found the exam to be very similar to NBME 16 and 15 in terms of the number of straightforward questions. There were also a few WTF questions per block, but that was to be expected. Overall, I'd say difficulty level for my Step 1 exam was slightly harder than NBME and a little easier or equal to UWorld.

Question length ranged from short 1-2 liners to a few super long questions with butt loads of lab values. The latter often seemed filled with distractors. On average I finished each block with 10-15 minutes to spare, which I spent going over marked questions and anything that I wanted to double-check my reasoning on (especially those up-down arrow questions). I felt like a good 90% or more of the test was straight out of FA, and even had a few nearly identical questions that I had seen from either UWorld or NBME. Those were nice to have around.

Breaks seemed rushed to me. 10 minutes is not a lot of time at all...

After the test, I felt okay. I don't feel like I bombed it, but at the same time, I highly doubt I aced it either. However, even just over the past day I've gotten substantially more nervous about my score. A lot of questions are slowly coming back to me, and I know I got some wrong for sure...just not sure how many. I also had a super hard final block and almost started panicking over how many questions I was marking, so who knows what dumb mistakes I made there.

Biochem: pretty biochem heavy for me, most were usually clinically correlated in some way. FA was more than enough.
Anatomy: anatomy is my strong suit, but nothing surprising. MRI cuts, neuroanatomy, the usual. FA + basic understanding from GA in school was enough.
Behavioral science: a TON of these, plus a few on insurance, co-pay, etc. FA...plus a little common sense seemed adequate.
Embryo: I don't recall any embryo questions on mine, weirdly.
Physiology: some arrow questions, some WTF questions.
Path: pretty straightforward.
Pelvic innervation and anatomy showed up as well, thanks to all those to suggested we look into that before walking into the test.

There you have it. Hopefully the exam will have a curve favorable to me.

 

[PapezCirDead]

Kaplan lecture notes and videos (all but Pathology)
Pathoma
High Yield Neuro first 100 pages or so
Sketchy Micro
Master the Board ETHICS

Kaplan Qbank 78% (Completed 100%)
USMLE Qbank first pass 88% (Completed 100%)
USMLE Qbank second pass 98-99% (only 1200 marked and incorrect questions ) did it in 7 days

U.W Assessment 1 @ 3 months (258) Just before starting the UWORLD
NBME 15 @ Jun 15 (245)
NBME 13 @ Jul 09 (254)
NBME 07 @ Aug 11 (254)
NBME 16 @ Aug 20 (251)
U.W assessment @ Aug 21 (265+) 91%
Free 150 @ Aug 23 95%

the night before the test studied for couple of hours ( I should not) and had as much sleep as I could "was not easy to go to sleep that night"
test was really hard and full of obscure and non sense questions, I tried to keep focusing and to give my best but there was many questions that I had to conclude and guess rather than just to give as straight forward answer.
Anatomy was really hard and it was nothing like the FA or Kaplan or Uworld and I did really bad on that, because in those questions I had no idea and I can not reason the answer out it is either you or you just don't.I would advice doing CT scans and MRIs for head and neck chest abdomen and lower limbs.
Neuroanatomy was easy and few questions, that was not good for me because I tried my best to master that more than the Gross anatomy.
LOTS OF THEORETICAL QUESTIONS, that was really annoying and time consuming.
lots of Behavioral science questions..
Biochemistry was ok One question that I had to conclude because the answer was not in FA or UW
pathology.. was ok lots oncogenesis and neoplasia questions tested in twisted ways.

During the test, skipped the tutorial just checked the headphones and multimedia before doing so, I took all the braked in 5 to 10 min and went to take a leak in every single break even though that my bladder did not call for that. But I decided to do so when I was practicing the NBMEs.
I had between 1 min to 6 min left at the end of each block ( I had time issue from the beginning) this is the best I could do as I used to lose 1 to 5 questions in every assessment test prior to that.

Real Score 263

 

[PapezCirDead]

I'm done with Step 1!!!

As promised, I've included an overview of my study schedule below:
Materials used:
First Aid
Pathoma
Picmonic
Kaplan QBank
UWorld QBank

Timeline: 12 weeks total. 6 weeks of systems-based studying and relevant Kaplan QBank questions, followed by 6 weeks of reviewing FA while doing random, timed blocks of UWorld QBank, UWSAs, and NBME.

Kaplan QBank: completed half, averaging 68%
UWorld QBank: completed all, ~75% first-pass average
UWSA1: 230
UWSA2: 230
NBME 13: 230
NBME 11: 234
NBME 15: 239
NBME 16: 239
Real deal: TBA...

Test day:
I was really nervous going into the test because everyone on SDN kept saying it's profoundly harder than anything you see on UWorld or the NBMEs. However, I found the exam to be very similar to NBME 16 and 15 in terms of the number of straightforward questions. There were also a few WTF questions per block, but that was to be expected. Overall, I'd say difficulty level for my Step 1 exam was slightly harder than NBME and a little easier or equal to UWorld.

Question length ranged from short 1-2 liners to a few super long questions with butt loads of lab values. The latter often seemed filled with distractors. On average I finished each block with 10-15 minutes to spare, which I spent going over marked questions and anything that I wanted to double-check my reasoning on (especially those up-down arrow questions). I felt like a good 90% or more of the test was straight out of FA, and even had a few nearly identical questions that I had seen from either UWorld or NBME. Those were nice to have around.

Breaks seemed rushed to me. 10 minutes is not a lot of time at all...

After the test, I felt okay. I don't feel like I bombed it, but at the same time, I highly doubt I aced it either. However, even just over the past day I've gotten substantially more nervous about my score. A lot of questions are slowly coming back to me, and I know I got some wrong for sure...just not sure how many. I also had a super hard final block and almost started panicking over how many questions I was marking, so who knows what dumb mistakes I made there.

Biochem: pretty biochem heavy for me, most were usually clinically correlated in some way. FA was more than enough.
Anatomy: anatomy is my strong suit, but nothing surprising. MRI cuts, neuroanatomy, the usual. FA + basic understanding from GA in school was enough.
Behavioral science: a TON of these, plus a few on insurance, co-pay, etc. FA...plus a little common sense seemed adequate.
Embryo: I don't recall any embryo questions on mine, weirdly.
Physiology: some arrow questions, some WTF questions.
Path: pretty straightforward.
Pelvic innervation and anatomy showed up as well, thanks to all those to suggested we look into that before walking into the test.

There you have it. Hopefully the exam will have a curve favorable to me.

Totally agree with the you
I had the same exam day and questions experience, few differences in the distributions of questions among the disciplines ...

Wish you the best of luck with your score

 

[Road734]

From my understanding as far as NBME goes.. I think the expanded format is the only way to go about with it. That way you can go back and review the ones you got wrong. They won't have the right answer marked unfortunately and they don't show you the ones you got right either. Since the marking is obscure its hard to exactly tell which subjects that question falls under, could be multi-tiered for all we know.

I completely agree with you... it makes studying a bit more structured. Hopefully somebody can tell us more if there are alternative ways or options.

Thank you so much for your very quick reply. That explains alot. I didn't know what kind I had since we get a free 3 month subscription from school, which as it turns out is the cheap kind. So now I have to go and upgrade it. SMH.

 

[Road734]

Hi
If you are taking bout the NBME Online assessment test you have 2 types of subscriptions the regular for $50 and the Extended report ones for $60
always use the extended report ones because the report tells you what questions you got wrong.. If you have the Extended form you go to the report and start by page 1, the score assessment results and performance, at the left bottom part of the page you click on next and go to the next page, number of wrong questions in total and each discipline and system, click on the total number of wrong questions in blue you get to those questions. The problem is that you do not get an explanation for your wrong answer, or the right answer, neither you can review your marked ones that you think that you made correct merely by chance or you were not sure about. So regain access only to the wrong ones, from there you have to search forums and websites for the right answer (some of them are not accurate and are no more than the most agreed to be the right answer) I hated this process because it is very time consuming and literally caused me headaches.
Regarding the basic service that you get for $50 I have no idea because all I used were with extended report, from what I have heard, in those you can't know behind your estimated score so you can't get a chance to see and know what you made wrong.

Good Luck

Thank you very much. Your explanation is quite detailed and very helpful. As I mentioned in my other reply I got this subscription as part of our school, we get a code and it lasts for 3 months. I believe they cheaped out and got the cheaper kind. Anyways this is very helpful. At least I can see the ones I made an educated guess, if I got right or not. Thanks again.

 

[541266]

I'll be the one to break the cycle of success on this forum. I failed. Don't wanna say what I got but I was REAL close to passing (2-4pts). I thought I would do better. I was killing it on Uworld (Avg 75% - 85th percentile). NBME's were between 190-200, which makes them a good predictor but I didn't take any mu last 2 months of dedicated prep since I thought I knew my stuff and I went hard for such a long time and the last week especially before my exam I hammered down pathoma and FA again.

I've felt as if I've done everything for this exam. I started off with the Kaplan lecture notes and videos. I've done Uworld x3, Rxqbank x1, and Kaplan Qbank x1. I've watched Pathoma x3. I had an active in-person study partner that I studied with until she wrote, she passed. Then I hired a tutor and it took us 40 days to get through all the material and my tutor got a 250 and he was confident that I would do well since he actively quizzed me etc.

Should I do a score recheck or...? I don't know what to do. I got the score the day after my bday which was terrible. Not looking for sympathy, I'm looking for advice. I honestly think I'll need 2 months to get where I wanna be (220-230) and I only have one NBME left (form 12) and I'm ready again to go back to hell to get this exam over with. Any solid advice/plan tailored to my situation will be appreciated. Should I get Uworld again or should I try these generic qbanks like USMLEWeapon etc.? I was using FA '12 since I started annotating in it since med school and all my notes from Pathoma, Kaplan and UW are in it but I've ordered the new FA '14 to be safe. What do ya'll recommend?

Thank you. God bless! And congrats to all my colleagues on here who passed. Ya'll deserve it!

-Cali

 

[cruCiATE]

I'll be the one to break the cycle of success on this forum. I failed. Don't wanna say what I got but I was REAL close to passing (2-4pts). I thought I would do better. I was killing it on Uworld (Avg 75% - 85th percentile). NBME's were between 190-200, which makes them a good predictor but I didn't take any mu last 2 months of dedicated prep since I thought I knew my stuff and I went hard for such a long time and the last week especially before my exam I hammered down pathoma and FA again.

I've felt as if I've done everything for this exam. I started off with the Kaplan lecture notes and videos. I've done Uworld x3, Rxqbank x1, and Kaplan Qbank x1. I've watched Pathoma x3. I had an active in-person study partner that I studied with until she wrote, she passed. Then I hired a tutor and it took us 40 days to get through all the material and my tutor got a 250 and he was confident that I would do well since he actively quizzed me etc.

Should I do a score recheck or...? I don't know what to do. I got the score the day after my bday which was terrible. Not looking for sympathy, I'm looking for advice. I honestly think I'll need 2 months to get where I wanna be (220-230) and I only have one NBME left (form 12) and I'm ready again to go back to hell to get this exam over with. Any solid advice/plan tailored to my situation will be appreciated. Should I get Uworld again or should I try these generic qbanks like USMLEWeapon etc.? I was using FA '12 since I started annotating in it since med school and all my notes from Pathoma, Kaplan and UW are in it but I've ordered the new FA '14 to be safe. What do ya'll recommend?

Thank you. God bless! And congrats to all my colleagues on here who passed. Ya'll deserve it!

-Cali

NBMEs scores seem a bit risky to me, personally I ll say that 220 average on the last 3 NBMEs you take is ¨safe¨ for sitting the test, but most importantly, during your study process, did you test yourself continuously with new questions (uWAs or NBMEs or Kaplan Simulations) and tackled your weaknesses? Personally I have not taken the test but I was stuck on 190s and low 200s, and it was after spending a couple weeks on my weaknesses that boosted my NBMEs scores.

Hope it helps !

 

[mckinsey]

I'll be the one to break the cycle of success on this forum. I failed. Don't wanna say what I got but I was REAL close to passing (2-4pts). I thought I would do better. I was killing it on Uworld (Avg 75% - 85th percentile). NBME's were between 190-200, which makes them a good predictor but I didn't take any mu last 2 months of dedicated prep since I thought I knew my stuff and I went hard for such a long time and the last week especially before my exam I hammered down pathoma and FA again.

I've felt as if I've done everything for this exam. I started off with the Kaplan lecture notes and videos. I've done Uworld x3, Rxqbank x1, and Kaplan Qbank x1. I've watched Pathoma x3. I had an active in-person study partner that I studied with until she wrote, she passed. Then I hired a tutor and it took us 40 days to get through all the material and my tutor got a 250 and he was confident that I would do well since he actively quizzed me etc.

Should I do a score recheck or...? I don't know what to do. I got the score the day after my bday which was terrible. Not looking for sympathy, I'm looking for advice. I honestly think I'll need 2 months to get where I wanna be (220-230) and I only have one NBME left (form 12) and I'm ready again to go back to hell to get this exam over with. Any solid advice/plan tailored to my situation will be appreciated. Should I get Uworld again or should I try these generic qbanks like USMLEWeapon etc.? I was using FA '12 since I started annotating in it since med school and all my notes from Pathoma, Kaplan and UW are in it but I've ordered the new FA '14 to be safe. What do ya'll recommend?

Thank you. God bless! And congrats to all my colleagues on here who passed. Ya'll deserve it!

-Cali

I think the main question here that would be helpful to providing you with solid advice is where you think your weaknesses are (not just systems-wise like "embryology" but "test-taking skills" or "memorizing facts" or "making stupid mistakes"). Because from what I'm reading, you went through all the typical material used for Step 1, but for some reason were unable to show that you studied the material AND was able to apply it in the way needed during the exam.

More detail on how you studied would also be helpful. Sure your tutor quizzed you, but how? Just because you know what SHiNE SKIGBS stands for doesn't alays mean you'll remember to apply it in a clinical vignette of someone who had a splenectomy post-motor vehicle collision. And your UWorld average of 75% -- was that first-pass with timed, random 46q blocks? Or even on test day -- did you happen to end up with a really weird form, did you lose your cool, etc.?

 

[Kboy2]

I'll be the one to break the cycle of success on this forum. I failed. Don't wanna say what I got but I was REAL close to passing (2-4pts). I thought I would do better. I was killing it on Uworld (Avg 75% - 85th percentile). NBME's were between 190-200, which makes them a good predictor but I didn't take any mu last 2 months of dedicated prep since I thought I knew my stuff and I went hard for such a long time and the last week especially before my exam I hammered down pathoma and FA again.

I've felt as if I've done everything for this exam. I started off with the Kaplan lecture notes and videos. I've done Uworld x3, Rxqbank x1, and Kaplan Qbank x1. I've watched Pathoma x3. I had an active in-person study partner that I studied with until she wrote, she passed. Then I hired a tutor and it took us 40 days to get through all the material and my tutor got a 250 and he was confident that I would do well since he actively quizzed me etc.

Should I do a score recheck or...? I don't know what to do. I got the score the day after my bday which was terrible. Not looking for sympathy, I'm looking for advice. I honestly think I'll need 2 months to get where I wanna be (220-230) and I only have one NBME left (form 12) and I'm ready again to go back to hell to get this exam over with. Any solid advice/plan tailored to my situation will be appreciated. Should I get Uworld again or should I try these generic qbanks like USMLEWeapon etc.? I was using FA '12 since I started annotating in it since med school and all my notes from Pathoma, Kaplan and UW are in it but I've ordered the new FA '14 to be safe. What do ya'll recommend?

Thank you. God bless! And congrats to all my colleagues on here who passed. Ya'll deserve it!

-Cali

Hey man. I am so sorry to hear - it looks like you really put in a strong effort. I havent received my scores yet, so I am certainly no authority on the topic, but heres what I think.

In all honesty, after having gone through that many resources/Qbanks it makes me want to ask you if you were rushing through to 'just get'er done', or did you take your time through each and every question/book and really understand the 'whys and hows'. You will know the answer better than I, but if the answer is more along the lines of rushing through, I would advise redoing UW, and then your pick of Kaplan or Rx, then really analyzing the 'how and why'.

If you did take your time to really learn the stuff through, I think the issue is probably poor test taking strategy, which I really have no suggestion to improve. Based on your UW scores, I would assume it is a test taking issue. Someone else may be able to chime in on improvement for that part.

Wish you the absolute best on the next round. Hope you get the scores you deserve with that much effort.

 

[541266]

NBMEs scores seem a bit risky to me, personally I ll say that 220 average on the last 3 NBMEs you take is ¨safe¨ for sitting the test, but most importantly, during your study process, did you test yourself continuously with new questions (uWAs or NBMEs or Kaplan Simulations) and tackled your weaknesses? Personally I have not taken the test but I was stuck on 190s and low 200s, and it was after spending a couple weeks on my weaknesses that boosted my NBMEs scores.

Hope it helps !

I think the main question here that would be helpful to providing you with solid advice is where you think your weaknesses are (not just systems-wise like "embryology" but "test-taking skills" or "memorizing facts" or "making stupid mistakes"). Because from what I'm reading, you went through all the typical material used for Step 1, but for some reason were unable to show that you studied the material AND was able to apply it in the way needed during the exam.

More detail on how you studied would also be helpful. Sure your tutor quizzed you, but how? Just because you know what SHiNE SKIGBS stands for doesn't alays mean you'll remember to apply it in a clinical vignette of someone who had a splenectomy post-motor vehicle collision. And your UWorld average of 75% -- was that first-pass with timed, random 46q blocks? Or even on test day -- did you happen to end up with a really weird form, did you lose your cool, etc.?

Hey man. I am so sorry to hear - it looks like you really put in a strong effort. I havent received my scores yet, so I am certainly no authority on the topic, but heres what I think.

In all honesty, after having gone through that many resources/Qbanks it makes me want to ask you if you were rushing through to 'just get'er done', or did you take your time through each and every question/book and really understand the 'whys and hows'. You will know the answer better than I, but if the answer is more along the lines of rushing through, I would advise redoing UW, and then your pick of Kaplan or Rx, then really analyzing the 'how and why'.

If you did take your time to really learn the stuff through, I think the issue is probably poor test taking strategy, which I really have no suggestion to improve. Based on your UW scores, I would assume it is a test taking issue. Someone else may be able to chime in on improvement for that part.

Wish you the absolute best on the next round. Hope you get the scores you deserve with that much effort.

Thanks for your input. I really do appreciate it. For starters, I did tackle my weaknesses and I improved on those weaknesses greatly. However, when I focused on my worst subjects, my 'best' subjects became my 'mediocre' subjects due to lack of reviewing or appliance. Secondly, test-taking skills and making stupid mistakes are a problem for me. I know my material. But according to the exam I failed to apply that material into the asked questions. I failed to apply the material even though I knew it. Thirdly, I did Uworld three times over the course of a year. The first time I finished it was October '13 (40% avg), the 2nd time I completed Uworld was in January (50% avg) and the 3rd time I completed it was in June (74% avg). As you can see I spaced them out and I didn't memorize the answers, I would still get the same ones wrong as I did before. I mean, yeah some blocks I would recognize the questions and get it right just because I've seen it before but that was 2 or 3 questions max per block. I always did timed random 46q blocks. I would make one-liners in a notebook of the concepts I missed on UW.

And for Kaplan qbank and Rx qbank I only subscribed to them a month each and I did not like them at all and did not find them useful or helpful so I stuck to Uworld, NBME's and UW assessments as my first choice for questions.

Mckinsey and kboy, in terms of my study routine did you want a daily schedule or my complete study plan? I did kaplan lecs and videos, I attempted to do DIT a few times - made it halfway each time but found I got nothing out of it. Watched pathoma x3 and read FA cover-to-cover 4-5 times, I lost count honestly. I studied 10-12hrs a day, sometimes more. I thought I was going to do well. I'm afraid to do a score recheck in case they give me a score boost and ultimately ending up with a 193, 194 etc and not getting a residency so I'd rather put in a couple months and strive to hit at least a 220. My tutor mainly went over FA with me but he would ask me to explain concepts to him, for example the mechanism of CHF and Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis. He really picked my brain.

As for test day, my exam was ay 8am. I had to be up by 6am to eat and make the one hour drive to the test center. I got into bed at 1030pm and could not fall asleep until 1am since my mind kept racing so I had about 5 hours of sleep which wasn't good. I had a cup of coffee before and brought a ton of food and gatorade with me to the test center. The exam had weird q's but I felt "okay" about it. I anticipated a harder exam.

Sorry if I did not respond to any particular questions there was a lot to respond too. Anyway, thank you for your input.

 

[Dave89]

I think it might be a good idea for anyone yet to take Step 1 to study Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever thoroughly .

 

[EazyE1907]

Ha. I thought the same exact thing when all that was/is going on.

 

[Distant]

***I did Uworld three times over the course of a year. The first time I finished it was October '13 (40% avg), the 2nd time I completed Uworld was in January (50% avg) and the 3rd time I completed it was in June (74% avg).

***I attempted to do DIT a few times - made it halfway each time but found I got nothing out of it.

I find the whole Explanation to your performance in these two points..

First of all, How would someone watch DIT and "Get nothing out of it?"

I mean, You don't simply Watch it, you must Understand every single concept they deliver. you must, gee, take notes, snap shot the important slides and go over them again and again, don't let any piece of info pass by you ungrasped!

And the only Reason Doing UW 3 times without great improvement in score is the same, you either didn't take notes or didn't connect and tie in the information somehow. Or perhaps didn't Read the Explanations Carefully.

You're whole studying process might be "passive" where you just read or watch and move on without generating question in your minds, "why?, How?" or tying things together.

You might Need to give every subject "It's own Time. a couple of days for instance, depending on your strengths and weaknesses from Kaplan LN or any Major Resource to look at the Concepts from a broader view. Don't Let any Mistake Repeat it Self, don't pass a Pathway unless you completely understand and memorize, in which you are able to write it from your head starting from Blank.

The more you give this Exam, The more it will give you. Period.

Studying is NOT about the QUANTITY "How many Qbanks, how many times, how many resources, how many hours, ... Who cares?!"
It's the QUALITY they're looking for.

You already saw the Real Exam, You know how the Exam is Like, Search for the Pictures you saw there, the scenarios. You must Remember Tons of Mistakes, Don't allow you're self to fall for the same ones again.

Listen to Goljan, Anticipate your mistakes and Avoid them.

All the Best.

 

[541266]

Hey Distant,

I didn't get much out of DIT because all it is a guy reading FA line by line. I did well on their quizzes but I didn't find it to be productive. I would have rather spent that time watching Pathoma or reading FA on my own or doing q's. I did annotate and make my own notes from DIT but again, I found other resources to be more helpful. That's just me. And yeah I did tie things together, you're talking as if I failed by like 50 points and I failed by under 5pts. Either way a fail is a fail but I was damn close. I have a full notebook of notes from UW. I've drawn out pathways and pinned them to my wall. Idk what I'll need to do that I haven't done already but Im willing to do what it takes. Maybe I'll give the new DIT a try, what other options do I have at this point.

Thanks.

 

[PL198]

Kaplan videos are great ... Not all of them most of them
Physio, Pharma, behavioral and biosat are gold
Biochemistry, gross anatomy videos are silver
Immuno videos are bronze
Histo and microbiology are rust (i don't recommend them neither the videos nor the books)
Neurology (can't tell you cuz i did not do those)
But you need to do them along side with kaplan lecture notes because they are designed this way and are not designed for the FA... If you want to do videos do Kaplan with KLN but aviod the Rust... Do them quickly and do not waste too much time overdoing them or memorizing the lecture noted get the concepts and jump into FA..
The best (and I believe the only) way to do FA is along side with questions ... Togather they are great but FA can never stand alone
I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT DIT OR FA EXPRESS.. But I believe that there is a general agreement that Kaplan videos are the best lecture videos..

I hope that can help you making you mind

I use the micro and immuno videos now and feel like they are great.

 

[mckinsey]

@Cali 916

I'm trying to pinpoint the major problems and it sounds like a combo of retaining information and applying it in the way the exam wants.

I'm inclined to agree with other posters here, in that it sounds like there's some passive learning going on here. A 10% increase between 1st and 2nd passes of UWorld is problematic especially given that the entire first pass was at a 40% average. You should be seeing exponential improvement throughout a single pass of UWorld over time. There are enough problems in UWorld where they test the same concept in different ways, so having only improved from 40 to 50% means you weren't able to connect the dots well enough to apply them in future scenarios. I also would urge you to transfer your one-liners of missed concepts into the relevant parts in FA so you're able to study them side by side and not simply have a notebook of errors.

Regarding passive vs. active learning: while you watched Pathoma videos and followed along in the book, did you explain things to yourself as you annotated the teaching points into FA? If not, you should be doing so. When you are reading FA, are you making Anki cards for later review? Are you taking time to think about each point being made by FA and questioning why that point is being made? When you review your incorrect UWorld questions, are you making conscious effort to pin down where you went wrong in each problem? I had a tendency to think "yeah yeah this was a dumb mistake, I'll get it next time, so I can just skim this explanation" or "yeah well I just didn't know this fact so whatever." But I forced myself to look closely at the question and explanations. Why did I make that specific stupid mistake? Was I reading too fast or did I having some broader misunderstanding? Even though I didn't know X fact which leads to Y answer, was there some way I could have utilized what I already knew to reason my way to this answer instead? Learning to pick answers smartly can be key to getting some of the WTF questions on the exam.

I would search SDN forums or ask your administration about the score recheck. I can't imagine that having a 193-194 would be better than retaking the exam and getting in the 220s, but I don't want to give unsound advice.

 

[PapezCirDead]

I use the micro and immuno videos now and feel like they are great.

Definitely this is my point of view so it might or might not fit others in a good way.
Immunology was helpful to me..
But microbiology I am quite sure that it was a waste of time for me
I 'll explain:
I really wanted to make point of that, so others can get the benefit, When you do something during your preparation you are not working out just for knowledge, what you study should be helpful for the test day, they just don't care if you have done Robin's 1000000x all they look for are the degrees. So I believe anybody preparing for the step has to be oriented this way.
A helpful review material is: easy understandable while you are going through, tactile the important score saving facts, simplifies the hard and liquefies the dry material for a good retaining saved in mind until the test day. When it comes to Microbiology it is a really dry material with many branching information and small variations that are essential for the differentials, I think Kplan failed on that because the book is bulky and point to abstract facts without integration of information from different parts of the materials. The videos are nothing but the Dr. Moscatello reading the text, all she did is the staph toy (had nothing to do with staph and the kitchen clamp) after all when I finished STUDYING they book not just reading I found out that I remember nothing and have retained nothing and when I came to Questions I recalled nothing.. Try to do Some of the Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple and you will know what I an talking About.

After all If you found It Helpful and served the Purpose for you, then you are fine and you can do great because not all people brains work the same way, It just did not work for me.

Good Luck

 

[milomohamed]

I need an advice, an insight really:
I'll attach the 2 performance analysis here, I did 2 NBMEs online in my prep so far, 7 and 11, and did 4, 5, and 6 offline.
Exam in 7 weeks.
The issue is for the last 8 weeks I've NOT improved even a single point 251 in both the online forms and 2 months with no improvements is just devastating.
In the past 8 weeks I've did:
FAx2
Pathomax2
KissPharmx1
Kaplan Qbank, completed 79% average
UW, done 43 blocks, 83% average
Rx did around 45% of it
What seems to be the issue is that there is a ton of questions that I narrow down to 2 options then choose the wrong one, i.e. in form 11 I had 18 mistakes, 14 of them I chose the wrong instead of the right :\.
Another issue, I worked on the subjects that were really defective in NBME 7, i.e. Physio and killed it but other subjects that were really good dropped significantly, like immunology and Behav.
I feel down knowing that in 2 months I didn't improve even by a single point. NBME 12 in 2 weeks and looking for advice for how to advance.
NBME 7:

NBME 11:

 

[PL198]

Definitely this is my point of view so it might or might not fit others in a good way.
Immunology was helpful to me..
But microbiology I am quite sure that it was a waste of time for me
I 'll explain:
I really wanted to make point of that, so others can get the benefit, When you do something during your preparation you are not working out just for knowledge, what you study should be helpful for the test day, they just don't care if you have done Robin's 1000000x all they look for are the degrees. So I believe anybody preparing for the step has to be oriented this way.
A helpful review material is: easy understandable while you are going through, tactile the important score saving facts, simplifies the hard and liquefies the dry material for a good retaining saved in mind until the test day. When it comes to Microbiology it is a really dry material with many branching information and small variations that are essential for the differentials, I think Kplan failed on that because the book is bulky and point to abstract facts without integration of information from different parts of the materials. The videos are nothing but the Dr. Moscatello reading the text, all she did is the staph toy (had nothing to do with staph and the kitchen clamp) after all when I finished STUDYING they book not just reading I found out that I remember nothing and have retained nothing and when I came to Questions I recalled nothing.. Try to do Some of the Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple and you will know what I an talking About.

After all If you found It Helpful and served the Purpose for you, then you are fine and you can do great because not all people brains work the same way, It just did not work for me.

Good Luck

Oh I'm just watching the videos and annotating RR with it to sorta double dip on what each group thinks is notable, so that might also explain a difference in our perception.

 

[R94]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas/suggestions on what would constitute a safe NBME score. I have taken a few NBMEs and I have gotten passing scores on all of them. My scores range from 207-217 (12, 13 and 15) . My Uworld first pass average was 66% (random, timed, unused). My goal is 230+ but that being said, what are the chances that I would fail? I am an IMG and a failure could be catastrophic for me. What NBME score would be "safe"?

Thanks for the input!

 

[pavel13]

woww

well if he failed then I'm toasted...this is depressing. I can't sleep, barely eat, don't talk to anyone...my scores come out this wk or next...not looking forward to this.

 

[541266]

@Cali 916

I'm trying to pinpoint the major problems and it sounds like a combo of retaining information and applying it in the way the exam wants.

I'm inclined to agree with other posters here, in that it sounds like there's some passive learning going on here. A 10% increase between 1st and 2nd passes of UWorld is problematic especially given that the entire first pass was at a 40% average. You should be seeing exponential improvement throughout a single pass of UWorld over time. There are enough problems in UWorld where they test the same concept in different ways, so having only improved from 40 to 50% means you weren't able to connect the dots well enough to apply them in future scenarios. I also would urge you to transfer your one-liners of missed concepts into the relevant parts in FA so you're able to study them side by side and not simply have a notebook of errors.

Regarding passive vs. active learning: while you watched Pathoma videos and followed along in the book, did you explain things to yourself as you annotated the teaching points into FA? If not, you should be doing so. When you are reading FA, are you making Anki cards for later review? Are you taking time to think about each point being made by FA and questioning why that point is being made? When you review your incorrect UWorld questions, are you making conscious effort to pin down where you went wrong in each problem? I had a tendency to think "yeah yeah this was a dumb mistake, I'll get it next time, so I can just skim this explanation" or "yeah well I just didn't know this fact so whatever." But I forced myself to look closely at the question and explanations. Why did I make that specific stupid mistake? Was I reading too fast or did I having some broader misunderstanding? Even though I didn't know X fact which leads to Y answer, was there some way I could have utilized what I already knew to reason my way to this answer instead? Learning to pick answers smartly can be key to getting some of the WTF questions on the exam.

I would search SDN forums or ask your administration about the score recheck. I can't imagine that having a 193-194 would be better than retaking the exam and getting in the 220s, but I don't want to give unsound advice.

Thank you so much for your time and for your response. I now know what I need to do. I've seen a pattern of mistakes I have made in studying for this exam and not to mention a terrible night of sleep before the exam. I still have all the information in my head, I need too as you aforementioned, to be able to connect the dots more specifically in the tested concepts, too not rush my block reviews in UW and to know exactly why I got chose the incorrect answer and to dissect what other testable concepts are asked in that question.

I've been doing business school hand-in-hand with my MD and that has been taking it's toll on me in regards to time and energy so I would just study hard for hours on end with that "get'er done strategy" because it worked both well with med school and business school but again studying for boards is a whole different ball game. In all honesty I also believe it was lack of sleep that flustered my mind on test day because there were some very easy questions that I had to think HARD about, and I knew them cold but it was just lack of sleep that flustered my mind during the time crunch, which was very similar to the time crunch in NBME 15 IMO.

Your response gave me clear direction on question review strategy. Thanks again for the time you took out of your day to message a complete stranger on SDN and take care!

 

[PapezCirDead]

I need an advice, an insight really:
I'll attach the 2 performance analysis here, I did 2 NBMEs online in my prep so far, 7 and 11, and did 4, 5, and 6 offline.
Exam in 7 weeks.
The issue is for the last 8 weeks I've NOT improved even a single point 251 in both the online forms and 2 months with no improvements is just devastating.
In the past 8 weeks I've did:
FAx2
Pathomax2
KissPharmx1
Kaplan Qbank, completed 79% average
UW, done 43 blocks, 83% average
Rx did around 45% of it
What seems to be the issue is that there is a ton of questions that I narrow down to 2 options then choose the wrong one, i.e. in form 11 I had 18 mistakes, 14 of them I chose the wrong instead of the right :\.
Another issue, I worked on the subjects that were really defective in NBME 7, i.e. Physio and killed it but other subjects that were really good dropped significantly, like immunology and Behav.
I feel down knowing that in 2 months I didn't improve even by a single point. NBME 12 in 2 weeks and looking for advice for how to advance.
NBME 7:

View attachment 185660
NBME 11:
View attachment 185661

First you are doing great so DON'T PANIC.. DON'T FEEL DEPRESSED
251 is a great score, more over you can consider it as an improvement in many ways: 1. Your performance in those 2 tests reflect consistency. 2. Your aced physiology after working on that between the 2 tests. 3. NBMEs are not your test score and it is always +/_ 5 to 10 so you might have increment in your over all performance that NBMEs failed to show either because is was not that much or for mere chance (good in NBME7 and bad in 11) YOU CAN LOOK FOR MY EARLIER PORT COUPLE OF DAYS AGO CONTAINS MY NBMES IT WILL GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE ON THAT.
I would not care too much for all the disciplines like in the case of behavioral science you have almost a boarder line and I don't think that this is bad. Behavioral is not predictable, still you can get many on you test, still you can't predict how you will do on that. But what I can notice you have a constantly below your average performance in Respiratory. you have to work on that, because in both tests you are below your average and RESPIRATORY is very highly tested.
what NBME 11 has over NBME 7 is the hematology, I think that you have to work on that too.
At your stage and high performance it is really common that you get stacked on 2 choices in most of the questions that you make wrong, I am quite sure that you are experiencing the same thing in UWrold blocks. So you have to diagnose the reason:why you are choosing the wrong one after excluding down to 2 answers always try to search for the key for the right one in the question stem.
WHAT TO DO:
I think that you have to work on Respiratory and Hematology, a review of immunology. But to keep it balanced not to overdo it in a way that you ACE those and loos points in others.
MOST IMPORTANT
you have to keep confident and always remember that the USMLE will test you on all disciplines and systems not only one of them and because we are all human we tend to forget on things if we overdo others... meaning you have to keep it balanced, you are almost done with UWorld so all you need is to wrap it up all together all systems and subjects one full review keep it concise and concentrated and fresh before the test. I think this what you have to do during the last couple of weeks before the test. DON'T WORRY HARD-WORKER YOU WILL GET A GREAT SCORE

Wish you LUCK

 

[milomohamed]

@PapezCirDead Thank you, yes I've read your experience and seen your scores and they've given me great positive energy.

 

[nrimbbs]

Congratulations to everyone that passed! There are some amazing scores on this forum.

So, I just read Phloston's amazing write up (a word doc) that covered his exam preparation and experience. It scared the **** out of me.

I have to admit I was an incredibly average student in first and second year of medical school in India. I was not someone who read the nitty gritty details of Robbins or even touched a USMLE review book (besides Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple) before a few months ago.

And then reading about many people on this forum who have tried hard to get the score they want but eventually didn't is also depressing...reading about their experiences makes me sure that something similar will happen to me. I feel like I'm preparing in the same way that they did.

So I did post earlier about my study details and you guys were so nice and answered! I do have a few more questions though lol!
The updated back story:

• I am still waiting for confirmation for my exam date from ECFMG, but I'm hoping to give the exam in the next 2 months or so.
  
• I did very little Kaplan videos earlier this year. Just micro really.
• I took an online NBME (form 7, i think) about 3 weeks ago...because I thought that would help me to establish my baseline. Yep. Got something equivalent to 194 on the real exam. Blah.
  
• I finished Pathoma about 2.5 weeks ago and about 70% Goljian rapid review path. I didn't actually take a lot of time reading through RR path. I would skim the relevant section after completing a chapter in Pathoma. I would mark anything that wasn't given in Pathoma. Then I would annotate from both resources into my first aid.
• I already had a one year subscription to UWorld. After some haphazard use, mostly in tutorial mode, I finally finished it and averaged only 57%. I did annotate all of UWorld into my first aid.
• I started the USMLE RX Qbank 1 week ago. I'm only averaging 69%. Even if the qbank says that's equivalent to "234", from what I've read about it on threads, I feel like it's probably more like a 200-210.
• I started DIT 2014 videos at the same time as the RX qbank. I'm not following their schedule. Have finished the primer and basic sciences videos. Started the systemic videos today. I annotate my first aid from the videos, too.
• I started reading the immunology chapters in Review of Medical Microbiology by Levinson because I was basically never taught immuno in school. I think it's an excellent resource! I obviously started it too late, but at least it's a quick read.
• Today, I finished the practice questions in HY Biostats.
• I have tried to use HY Neuroanat...but I guess I just don't know how to use that book?
• I feel like I'm improving with every question I do, but at a snail's pace!
  
• I plan on also doing the following: USMLE RX a second time (just marked/wrong questions), Kaplan Qbank (subject wise) and UWorld (2nd pass). I hope to listen to the Goljian lectures x2 and Pathoma one more time, also.
• My target is 240+.

Okay, so that being said...here are my questions:

• I have read many forums on the topics but only found conflicting answers...so to those of you who actually took the exam this year...were the following subjects from first aid/uworld enough for you or did you use another supplement: Biochem, Immuno and Anat (especially Neuroanat).
• I know that if I do a million questions, I should at the very very least...pass. I doubt I'll have time, but do you guys recommend doing Kaplan Qbank more than once? What about using other qbanks...I think Phloston and others used Robbins path qbank? What about gunner training/firecracker qbank? The posts I saw about that qbank seemed to be really old...
• What is a good resource for the audio and the CTs/MRIs etc that are seen on the exam?
• Do you guys have anything to add to my prep? Comments? I would love any suggestions!!! I feel really depressed and unsure of my method. Although I'm putting in about 10hours/day (just for the past ~2.5 wks), I don't feel confident that I will even pass. Am I being too cocky in even thinking 240+ is possible for me?

Thank you for taking the time to go through my long post! Good luck to those still awaiting their scores and to those about to take the exam

 

[Kboy2]

Congratulations to everyone that passed! There are some amazing scores on this forum.

Okay, so that being said...here are my questions:

• I have read many forums on the topics but only found conflicting answers...so to those of you who actually took the exam this year...were the following subjects from first aid/uworld enough for you or did you use another supplement: Biochem, Immuno and Anat (especially Neuroanat).
• I know that if I do a million questions, I should at the very very least...pass. I doubt I'll have time, but do you guys recommend doing Kaplan Qbank more than once? What about using other qbanks...I think Phloston and others used Robbins path qbank? What about gunner training/firecracker qbank? The posts I saw about that qbank seemed to be really old...
• What is a good resource for the audio and the CTs/MRIs etc that are seen on the exam?
• Do you guys have anything to add to my prep? Comments? I would love any suggestions!!! I feel really depressed and unsure of my method. Although I'm putting in about 10hours/day (just for the past ~2.5 wks), I don't feel confident that I will even pass. Am I being too cocky in even thinking 240+ is possible for me?

Thank you for taking the time to go through my long post! Good luck to those still awaiting their scores and to those about to take the exam

You've got conflicting answers on your first Q because everyones form is different . For my exam, FA was perfect for biochem and immuno. For anatomy, my form had TONS of head and neck, which is not even glazed over in first aid. Thus, I recommend Kaplan anatomy, and brs anatomy for additional images and CTs. For neuroanatomy specifically, I suggest one go at high yield neuro. Aside from those, just Google some radiology websites with tutorials and you're fine.

The general consensus on questions here is to learn one qbank very well. Only after having done that 'more becomes better'. I would redo uworld, slow, steady and intimately. Then the same for Rx after. All the while drill your FA and pathoma ACTIVELY (don't just passively read) and your scores should rise.

 

[Distant]

I need an advice, an insight really:
I'll attach the 2 performance analysis here, I did 2 NBMEs online in my prep so far, 7 and 11, and did 4, 5, and 6 offline.
Exam in 7 weeks.
The issue is for the last 8 weeks I've NOT improved even a single point 251 in both the online forms and 2 months with no improvements is just devastating.
In the past 8 weeks I've did:
FAx2
Pathomax2
KissPharmx1
Kaplan Qbank, completed 79% average
UW, done 43 blocks, 83% average
Rx did around 45% of it
What seems to be the issue is that there is a ton of questions that I narrow down to 2 options then choose the wrong one, i.e. in form 11 I had 18 mistakes, 14 of them I chose the wrong instead of the right :\.
Another issue, I worked on the subjects that were really defective in NBME 7, i.e. Physio and killed it but other subjects that were really good dropped significantly, like immunology and Behav.
I feel down knowing that in 2 months I didn't improve even by a single point. NBME 12 in 2 weeks and looking for advice for how to advance.
NBME 7:

View attachment 185660
NBME 11:
View attachment 185661

I'm pretty sure you almost plateaued and Have Reached as Far as The Resources you Are Using Can Take You

I Would Recommend Using 1 more resource like DIT Which hit important points you won't find anywhere else, since I have Already utilized all the resources you have, I can confidently say that they emphasize on certain topics which are not, again, available elsewhere.

Best,

 

[nrimbbs]

You've got conflicting answers on your first Q because everyones form is different . For my exam, FA was perfect for biochem and immuno. For anatomy, my form had TONS of head and neck, which is not even glazed over in first aid. Thus, I recommend Kaplan anatomy, and brs anatomy for additional images and CTs. For neuroanatomy specifically, I suggest one go at high yield neuro. Aside from those, just Google some radiology websites with tutorials and you're fine.

The general consensus on questions here is to learn one qbank very well. Only after having done that 'more becomes better'. I would redo uworld, slow, steady and intimately. Then the same for Rx after. All the while drill your FA and pathoma ACTIVELY (don't just passively read) and your scores should rise.

Okay. Memorize First Aid and Uworld. Got it. :|

lol I can't wait for this exam to be over with already. It's nerve racking, to say the least. I'm 2 months from my test date and already in this state. Probably going to aneurysm during the real deal.

Thank you for your reply!

 

[pavel13]

Anybody expecting scores today like me??!!

Scores still aren't out :/ Idk what time they are suppose to be posted

 

[SBR249]

Idk about IMGs but step 1 scores for US medical students are posted at 11am EST

 

[voicesinmyhead]

good luck you guys!

 

[freudianslip908]

Pretty depressed. I got my score today. <200. Rushed to take it in 1.5 months when I wasn't as prepared as I could have been to go for the Match this year. It's better to pass the first time, even when it's low, compared to multiple attempts right? I guess I had a big jump, considering when I started studying I got a 33% on a Kaplan Diagnostic Test.....

 

[DryHopped]

The posts in this forum were very helpful for me so I wanted to contribute. I took my test a while ago but just haven't got around to posting because I have been busy with rotations.

Test date: June
Prep: I started MS2 using USMLERx along w/pathoma and FA, I would just go through whatever system we were being tested during the year. I started Uworld (tutor/random) around January and finished it by the beginning of May. I started my 2nd pass of Uworld and practice tests after my last shelf exam of MS2. During my dedicated study period I just made as many passes through FA and Pathoma as many times as I could while trying to get through Uworld a 2nd time (made it through about 80% of Uworld on 2nd pass).

Practice test scores
5/3-USAW1: 247
5/8-USAW2: 260
5/13-NBME7: 237
5/17-NBME11: 245
5/21-NBME12: 247
5/25-NBME13: 264
5/28-NBME15: 251
5/28-NBME16: 251

Real thing: 250
-after taking it I felt horrible and was thinking I was going to get a 230 at best.. my goal was to break into the 250s so I was happy with the result.

 

[PapezCirDead]

I have a few questions in mind:
Are all three digits reflect the same degree.. meaning for example do all 240 scores reflect the same/similar levels of performance?
Are all scores reported in the same year or part of year have the same mean and standard deviation, or they vary from one report to another?
Does a 240 in 2012 is as good as 240 in 2014, and vice versa?
Does anybody know how program directors, or others at the programs you apply to, will read your score report?

I hope that if someone has an idea about that, would share it with me and others..

thanks

 

[Mleechu]

I have a few questions in mind:
Are all three digits reflect the same degree.. meaning for example do all 240 scores reflect the same/similar levels of performance?
Are all scores reported in the same year or part of year have the same mean and standard deviation, or they vary from one report to another?
Does a 240 in 2012 is as good as 240 in 2014, and vice versa?
Does anybody know how program directors, or others at the programs you apply to, will read your score report?

I hope that if someone has an idea about that, would share it with me and others..

thanks

Mean increases few points every year. The kind of score you have will stay above average for may be next 50 years.

 

[PapezCirDead]

Mean increases few points every year. The kind of score you have will stay above average for may be next 50 years.

Thank you, wish you get even a better score than mine.
Actually, I was not thinking about my score at all, but that question always puzzled me. So I thought "why not asking?"
I have noticed that the mean is increasing, but the standard deviation is decreasing overtime.
On the other hand I found that in two reports from 2013 one with mean of 227 and SD of 22 the other with 224 and SD of 22, respectively.
But from my reports and other reports on this forum "if I have not missed any" all had the same mean and SD (228, 21)

After 50 years " Who cares?" .... I am already an old IMG, So, if I complete the steps and residency "if I am lucky enough to get one in the first place", I'll be very thankful if I make it for another 20 years....

Thank you and Good Luck