Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg]

M2 here. Starting today, I am just going to be reviewing for Step 1 which I am taking next May, and nothing else. Here is my plan:

Oct 23-Dec 31: Memorize FA2014, Watch all of Pathoma
Jan 1-Jan 31: FA2015, Pathoma (pass 2), Kaplan QBank
Feb 1-Feb 28: FA2015 (pass 2), Pathoma (pass 3), USMLERX
March 1- March 31: FA2015 (pass 3), Pathoma (pass 4): UWorld
April 1- Mid May: FA2015 (pass 4), Pathoma (selective topics), UWorld (pass 2), all practice tests

Goal: High number

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[okokok]

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask for advice on two things -

1. Is it a good idea to listen to Goljan audio at the very beginning of m2, or should I wait til I have a few months of learning under my belt?

2. Did you all come up with your own study schedules for step? Are there accepted study templates out there (eg I remember sn2ed or whatever for the mcat), or does it depend so much on your curriculum that everyone should come up with their own?

Thank you, I'd appreciate any advice. I start m2 next week and feel very in the dark about step 2. I've been trying to review stuff from M1 as I don't feel like I have a solid foundation at all. My school has below average step scores and doesn't offer much guidance about the exam.

And congratulations to everyone who has passed/got these amazing scores!!

 

[you.old]

Congrats. That's an awesome score. What were your assessment scores like?

Hello guys,
This is my first post ever on such a great forum. I heard a lot about SDN before but didn't have a chance to sign up. I got my USMLE Step 1 score report about 2 hours ago and I scored 258. So happy about my score but also felt a little pain & bitter since I needed only 2 more points to be +260 especially that I made five extremely silly mistakes in topics that I aced & mastered a lot during my preparation and possibly if I didn't make those mistakes I at least could have got 5 additional points if not more . Anyway, I thank god a lot for such a great score in such exam and wish you all the best . Ready for Step 2 CK soon and from now will be an active member in Step 2 CK forums

 

[+250]

Congrats. That's an awesome score. What were your assessment scores like?

Thank you. The last one I took was NBME 12 and it was 5 weeks before the exam date. I took it offline and I had 27 questions wrong so following the 1.4 rule this correlates with 173*1.4=242.2 Hope this will be useful

 

[Mkandil]

I took my exam july 28th and got my result few minutes ago
236

I was expecting more since I scored 257, and 265 in UW SA 1 and 2, ten and five days respectively before the exam, but again didn't sleep for two days before the test,,,, anxiety

How bad is my score? I'm an IMG and aiming for pediatric residency in the next match

 

[whyjesse]

261! Very happy with my score.

Most important:

• Find things to make you happy during dedicated. Burnout is real.
• Towards the end of dedicated, confidence is more important than knowledge. Trust what you know, and for the last week, focus on knowledge consolidation.
• Use what works for you. Everyone has access to the same resources. Trust in UW, FA, and/or Pathoma. Figure out what helps things stick in your brain and understand them.

Pre-dedicated:

• 75% on CBSSA given by school. Was class average at top 10 school.
• 1x Pathoma and 0.5x FA throughout the school year.
• Made my own Anki cards throughout the year. Maximum of 50 new cards per day, on average 30 cards added per day. Tried to keep reviews under 200 per day, and if above that, I would suspend cards. I'm a firm believer that fewer = better for Anki.
• Did questions from Robbins review, since these questions often showed up on our school exams. Wouldn't recommend it for Step.
• Wish I had done USMLERx throughout the year. I've notice that lots of 260+ do more than 1 qbank, and Rx is probably the best out there other than UW. However, I would highly discourage UW during MS2 because you end up remembering the questions and not the reasoning. I learned little to nothing on my second pass of UW because I just remembered the questions.

Dedicated:

• 3 months of study
• Used UWorld x1.5, USMLERx x0.5, FA x2, did not use Pathoma (I had done it during the school year)
• UWorld 81% first pass, 98%+ second pass
• USMLERx predicted score 275+
• NBME 11 (pre-dedicated, 3 months before): 235
• NBME 12 (2 months before, 0.5x FA, 0.5x UW): 251
• NBME 13 (1 month before, 1x FA, 1x UW): 258
• UWSA1 and UWSA2 (~3 weeks before): 265 both
• NBME 15 (2 weeks before): 275
• NBME 16 (1 week before): 260 (most predictive)
• NBME 17 (3 days before): 266
• Free 150: 92%

Some points:

• If you already have a solid grasp of Pathology, skip Pathoma during dedicated. I know this isn't typical advice. However, I've spoken with a few people who have scored in 260 range, and a lot of them only used Pathoma in MS2 and not dedicated. It's a great resource for building afoundation during preclinical studies, but not necessarily for pushing you into that 260+ range. If your target is below 240, or if you've never used Pathoma, that's perfectly respectable and I would suggest Pathoma in that case.
• Avoid using other people's Anki decks. It will pollute your brain, decontextualizes knowledge, and I don't think any deck is fully reliable. If you're going to use Anki, learn to write your own cards. Be sure to understand that Anki is extremely powerful only for memory, but memory does not always provide you context or understanding that are necessary to put knowledge into clinical use or Step 1.
• Do NOT treat FA like the bible, or try to memorize FA straight up. I see this recommended all the time and I think that's a terrible attitude to take. FA is highly abbreviated, has errors, and is missing information in lots of places. It is the single best resource, but the actual test requires abstraction and conceptual understanding that pure memorization is not fully adequate for.
• If possible, try to understand things mechanistically as much as possible. Before dedicated, I probably spent more time on Uptodate, Wikipedia, and Robbins trying to understand pathophys and clinical context more than I did trying to memorize FA word-for-word. If you're crunched for time however (e.g. 2 weeks left in your dedicated), just focus on FA.
• Avoid resource overload. Focus on UW and FA. For everything else, there's Wikipedia and Uptodate. I don't think BRS physio, HY neuroanatomy, Firecracker, DIT, or other secondary sources are good uses of time.
• The test will feel ****ty afterwards. That's normal.
• I think the optimal amount of time is 6-8wks to study. I plateaued at 8 weeks.
• I felt that NBME questions were not completely representative. The test had lots of things that I had never seen or thought about before and I walked out of the test thinking I had done a lot worse than I did. However, the score prediction from my last NBMEs were indeed predictive. In other words, the NBMEs predict but do not perfectly emulate the actual test

 

[Macaroon_Berry]

Hello guys,
This is my first post ever on such a great forum. I heard a lot about SDN before but didn't have a chance to sign up. I got my USMLE Step 1 score report about 2 hours ago and I scored 258. So happy about my score but also felt a little pain & bitter since I needed only 2 more points to be +260 especially that I made five extremely silly mistakes in topics that I aced & mastered a lot during my preparation and possibly if I didn't make those mistakes I at least could have got 5 additional points if not more . Anyway, I thank god a lot for such a great score in such exam and wish you all the best . Ready for Step 2 CK soon and from now will be an active member in Step 2 CK forums

Congrats!! Can you do a write-up about your study material/methods?

 

[doctorasisepuede]

Been creeping for several months so thought I'd share my non-monster scores

Final score: 232 - very happy with my results

CBSE: 175 (4 months before)
NBME 13: 194 (2 months before)
NBME 16: 207 (7 weeks before)
UWSA 1: 219 (6 wks)
NBME 15: 217 ( 5 weeks)
NBME 11: 209 ( 4 weeks)
NBME 17: 211 (11 days before) --> freaking out majorly at this point but way too burnt out to push test back
[took 1 wk mental health break]
NBME 12: 220 (6 days)
UWSA 2: 240 (4 days)

- FA x 1 and referenced throughout the way
- UWorld x 2
- UWorld Anki x 1.5 (made a deck and studied constantly
- Pathoma x3 + redid the 1st 3 chapters a 4th time
- Picmonic (mixed into Anki)
- Studied at LEAST 10-12 hrs daily during dedicated study time

Saw the biggest jump in grades with UWorld and Anki, which had been helping me tons throughout MS1 & MS2 (just to prove to stick with what has been working with you for 2 years)

 

[+250]

Congrats!! Can you do a write-up about your study material/methods?

Thank you I'm an IMG and I been a little away from Step 1 info since in my med school you go medicine straight from the beginning till graduation in 6 years (so basically Step 1 stuff is the 1st, 2nd & some of the 3rd year). I had to start with Kaplan videos as a kind of non-boring memory refreshment and this happened on Feb 2015. After that I did FA & UW. On May I started to do NBME offline and as I remember the first NBME I did which was NBME 16 I got like 45 wrong question. I went through FA couple times in May & June. Last NBME was by late June and I got 27 wrong question (in between I did NBME 17, 15 & 13 and in each NBME I did better than the previous one regarding the wrong questions #). During the last 5 weeks I reviewed FA for the last time & UW wrong questions and then went to the exam which was by late July. Didn't have a problem with time or breaks since I trained my self very well during NBME (this is really very very important for the exam).

 

[student456]

^^ this is it.

Thank you... just a quick questions are these questions?

 

[Silverish]

Congrats!! That's an awesome score!

 

[Nabin]

I gave mine a few days back. I am an IMG. In the last month, I had started to average 235 in the NBMEs. I gave 17 a week before the exam and scored 245. I was too saturated with my preparation and decided to go for it. My target was a 250+ but for some reasons, I was not being able to hit that mark in the NBMEs. I was prepared for the fact that the exam would be very challenging compared to the NBMEs. Mine was comparable to uworld regarding the style of the questions and the way to think about things. I don't know if it was the anxiety or time pressure, I was barely getting by the blocks. I was marking around 15-20 every block and that doesn't even mean the unmarked ones were 100% correct. It was such a tough exam. I was sweating throughout the whole exam experience. I always had the knack of messing up a good 1-2 questions every block in the NBMEs due to overthinking and such, so this was no different no matter how much I tried to avoid it. After leaving the center, I felt so defeated. I was not expecting to be marking 15-20 per block and that really took the wind out of my sail.

Nothing is going to change the result, but as days go by, those questions pop on from memory and the number of incorrects keep on rising up. I have counted 25 already. Half of them were miserable mistakes. Alien reasoning from my side which I wouldn't have done back home. So, I feel gutted to miss out on those gimmes.

Pharm: FA didn't cover many pharm questions, only a few of them. I was counting on FA on this one. Had studied Kaplan before, so maybe I couldn't extract stuff from memory.
Micro, Immuno: Couldn't make out 2-3 images, so randomly guessed it. FA takes care of others. Immuno was easy. Basic knowledge was enough.
Patho: Doable. Very confusing, nonetheless. The pressure of everything made it a little harder. Concepts known to me plain cold were giving me second thoughts during the exam. I had done Goljan + Pathoma videos and that helped me to face the questions and make assumptions (hopefully not wrong ones!)
Phsyio: BRS helped me here along with uworld. Had some queer looking graphs but I believe I guessed right on them by eliminating other options.
Anatomy: It was average. FA didn't cover many questions but I could guess them from previous knowledge. I was heavily prepared for neuroanatomy but only a few showed up. Arggh.
Biostats, behavioral science, ethics: Them 'appropriate response' nightmares. Had about 6-7 of them. But, I think I was right on most. So, hopefully I guessed right.
Some stat questions were so long like they filled up the entire page as if it were an essay or something. I just marked them and moved on to other questions and came back to them before the block finished. Had to guess here because little time was remaining to tackle the issue at hand.

Overall: Challenging experience. I felt like I was guessing half of the exam. NBMEs need to be assessed using a pinch of salt because the real exam was totally different to what I was preparing for. I thought my plane got re-routed somewhere else when I sat in front of the computer. Uworld is ESSENTIAL to learn to tackle the questions, to think about what to look for and make educated guesses.

Being an IMG, this was my one shot at one of the most difficult exams I've ever done because I don't have extra things on my CV to help me match. I will try to fetch some observerships later if possible but that doesn't count too much so I absolutely need a good score. My ship could do a titanic here because coming out of the exam, I felt like I have messed up big time. Waiting for the score will be such a pain in the a**.

Good luck to everyone else! As much as its about learning things, its also about tackling questions under pressure. Keep practicing questions until you are tired of it. And when you feel tired, splash your face with water and do them again. And I would like to thank the forum members from whom I have learnt a lot. Pray for me guys.

 

[tmlchelseafc]

I gave mine a few days back. I am an IMG. In the last month, I had started to average 235 in the NBMEs. I gave 17 a week before the exam and scored 245. I was too saturated with my preparation and decided to go for it. My target was a 250+ but for some reasons, I was not being able to hit that mark in the NBMEs. I was prepared for the fact that the exam would be very challenging compared to the NBMEs. Mine was comparable to uworld regarding the style of the questions and the way to think about things. I don't know if it was the anxiety or time pressure, I was barely getting by the blocks. I was marking around 15-20 every block and that doesn't even mean the unmarked ones were 100% correct. It was such a tough exam. I was sweating throughout the whole exam experience. I always had the knack of messing up a good 1-2 questions every block in the NBMEs due to overthinking and such, so this was no different no matter how much I tried to avoid it. After leaving the center, I felt so defeated. I was not expecting to be marking 15-20 per block and that really took the wind out of my sail.

Nothing is going to change the result, but as days go by, those questions pop on from memory and the number of incorrects keep on rising up. I have counted 25 already. Half of them were miserable mistakes. Alien reasoning from my side which I wouldn't have done back home. So, I feel gutted to miss out on those gimmes.

Pharm: FA didn't cover many pharm questions, only a few of them. I was counting on FA on this one. Had studied Kaplan before, so maybe I couldn't extract stuff from memory.
Micro, Immuno: Couldn't make out 2-3 images, so randomly guessed it. FA takes care of others. Immuno was easy. Basic knowledge was enough.
Patho: Doable. Very confusing, nonetheless. The pressure of everything made it a little harder. Concepts known to me plain cold were giving me second thoughts during the exam. I had done Goljan + Pathoma videos and that helped me to face the questions and make assumptions (hopefully not wrong ones!)
Phsyio: BRS helped me here along with uworld. Had some queer looking graphs but I believe I guessed right on them by eliminating other options.
Anatomy: It was average. FA didn't cover many questions but I could guess them from previous knowledge. I was heavily prepared for neuroanatomy but only a few showed up. Arggh.
Biostats, behavioral science, ethics: Them 'appropriate response' nightmares. Had about 6-7 of them. But, I think I was right on most. So, hopefully I guessed right.
Some stat questions were so long like they filled up the entire page as if it were an essay or something. I just marked them and moved on to other questions and came back to them before the block finished. Had to guess here because little time was remaining to tackle the issue at hand.

Overall: Challenging experience. I felt like I was guessing half of the exam. NBMEs need to be assessed using a pinch of salt because the real exam was totally different to what I was preparing for. I thought my plane got re-routed somewhere else when I sat in front of the computer. Uworld is ESSENTIAL to learn to tackle the questions, to think about what to look for and make educated guesses.

Being an IMG, this was my one shot at one of the most difficult exams I've ever done because I don't have extra things on my CV to help me match. I will try to fetch some observerships later if possible but that doesn't count too much so I absolutely need a good score. My ship could do a titanic here because coming out of the exam, I felt like I have messed up big time. Waiting for the score will be such a pain in the a**.

Good luck to everyone else! As much as its about learning things, its also about tackling questions under pressure. Keep practicing questions until you are tired of it. And when you feel tired, splash your face with water and do them again. And I would like to thank the forum members from whom I have learnt a lot. Pray for me guys.

Please keep us updated. Wish you the best.

 

[Nabin]

Please keep us updated. Wish you the best.

Thank you so much. I surely will update.

 

[omtj]

I gave mine a few days back. I am an IMG. In the last month, I had started to average 235 in the NBMEs. I gave 17 a week before the exam and scored 245. I was too saturated with my preparation and decided to go for it. My target was a 250+ but for some reasons, I was not being able to hit that mark in the NBMEs. I was prepared for the fact that the exam would be very challenging compared to the NBMEs. Mine was comparable to uworld regarding the style of the questions and the way to think about things. I don't know if it was the anxiety or time pressure, I was barely getting by the blocks. I was marking around 15-20 every block and that doesn't even mean the unmarked ones were 100% correct. It was such a tough exam. I was sweating throughout the whole exam experience. I always had the knack of messing up a good 1-2 questions every block in the NBMEs due to overthinking and such, so this was no different no matter how much I tried to avoid it. After leaving the center, I felt so defeated. I was not expecting to be marking 15-20 per block and that really took the wind out of my sail.

Nothing is going to change the result, but as days go by, those questions pop on from memory and the number of incorrects keep on rising up. I have counted 25 already. Half of them were miserable mistakes. Alien reasoning from my side which I wouldn't have done back home. So, I feel gutted to miss out on those gimmes.

Pharm: FA didn't cover many pharm questions, only a few of them. I was counting on FA on this one. Had studied Kaplan before, so maybe I couldn't extract stuff from memory.
Micro, Immuno: Couldn't make out 2-3 images, so randomly guessed it. FA takes care of others. Immuno was easy. Basic knowledge was enough.
Patho: Doable. Very confusing, nonetheless. The pressure of everything made it a little harder. Concepts known to me plain cold were giving me second thoughts during the exam. I had done Goljan + Pathoma videos and that helped me to face the questions and make assumptions (hopefully not wrong ones!)
Phsyio: BRS helped me here along with uworld. Had some queer looking graphs but I believe I guessed right on them by eliminating other options.
Anatomy: It was average. FA didn't cover many questions but I could guess them from previous knowledge. I was heavily prepared for neuroanatomy but only a few showed up. Arggh.
Biostats, behavioral science, ethics: Them 'appropriate response' nightmares. Had about 6-7 of them. But, I think I was right on most. So, hopefully I guessed right.
Some stat questions were so long like they filled up the entire page as if it were an essay or something. I just marked them and moved on to other questions and came back to them before the block finished. Had to guess here because little time was remaining to tackle the issue at hand.

Overall: Challenging experience. I felt like I was guessing half of the exam. NBMEs need to be assessed using a pinch of salt because the real exam was totally different to what I was preparing for. I thought my plane got re-routed somewhere else when I sat in front of the computer. Uworld is ESSENTIAL to learn to tackle the questions, to think about what to look for and make educated guesses.

Being an IMG, this was my one shot at one of the most difficult exams I've ever done because I don't have extra things on my CV to help me match. I will try to fetch some observerships later if possible but that doesn't count too much so I absolutely need a good score. My ship could do a titanic here because coming out of the exam, I felt like I have messed up big time. Waiting for the score will be such a pain in the a**.

Good luck to everyone else! As much as its about learning things, its also about tackling questions under pressure. Keep practicing questions until you are tired of it. And when you feel tired, splash your face with water and do them again. And I would like to thank the forum members from whom I have learnt a lot. Pray for me guys.

I can feel your pain , I took my step just yesterday and really it was tough , I wish you all the luck ,,,

 

[Nabin]

I can feel your pain , I took my step just yesterday and really it was tough , I wish you all the luck ,,,

Thanks. Good luck to you as well. It was so damn tough. I wasn't feeling so bad doing the NBMEs. It was similar to uworld in style but tougher, confusing and nothing like the NBMEs. Missed easy ones and that hurts even more. Was marking every other thing. LOL.

 

[AnalisCanalis]

While my test is not until next year sometime, I would appreciate some input from you all. Throughout the year I've completed USMLERx (85%), made a couple of passes through FA and Pathoma, and I've banked roughly 65% of FC. Did NBME 11 today which came back at 251. As a foreign medical student, I'd like to break 260. At this point I'm hesitant as to whether I should just stick to UFAP for dedicated or add a few other resources in the meantime, maybe Goljan RR or Kaplan Qbank. I suppose what I'm really asking is if UFAP alone is enough to secure >260. Any thoughts?

 

[mrknowitall]

Started studying mid-April, my basics were horrible. I understood a lot of concepts but I couldn’t commit anything to memory until I started studying in April. I am not gonna post my study plan/schedule until after my result.


I would like to know if anyone else had the same experience and what their scores were if possible.


Strengths:

Anatomy

Physio (I have very good understanding of physics)


Weakness:

Micro

Biochem

Pharm (got extremely strong by the end)


Took my step 1 one week ago, here are my scores:


Pre-study


April 15: 180/160 – NBME 11 – I scored even lower on NBME 7 so I was frustrated where I started off but kept on going


Tests after 2 months of hard studying (I took NBME 11 again because I didn’t do well before and didn’t think I would remember the questions and it would still serve as a good prediction)


June 16: 360/198 – NBME 11 – passing!

June 17: 400/207 – NBME 12 ß was extremely happy about this score (considering where I started)

June 27: 390/205 – NBME 13 (this was HARD)

Jul 07: 420/211 – NBME 16

Jul 13: 420/211 – NBME 17


Bummed out hard about the 16/17 scores because I studied really hard, so I pushed my exam date back…


Aug 12: 520/232 – NBME 15 ß fell off the chair due to happiness on this score…


I took uwsa somewhere between the NBMEs:


UWSA 1: 224

UWSA 2: 232 took this with NBME 13 (same day) to practice step 1 exam timings


Aug 17: Step 1


I know my NBMEs weren’t great until my last one, but by the end I was very confident in my knowledge. I knew alooot of answers in the actual exam and after my exam I went over the First Aid (the next day) and found that I got sooo many questions right… what I am scared of are the questions that weren’t in the First Aid and I couldn’t check (except about 5 questions that I remembered through memory)


Thank you all for reading!

Goodluck to everyone who still has to take the exam!

 

[cs879]

Started studying mid-April, my basics were horrible. I understood a lot of concepts but I couldn’t commit anything to memory until I started studying in April. I am not gonna post my study plan/schedule until after my result.


I would like to know if anyone else had the same experience and what their scores were if possible.


Strengths:

Anatomy

Physio (I have very good understanding of physics)


Weakness:

Micro

Biochem

Pharm (got extremely strong by the end)


Took my step 1 one week ago, here are my scores:


Pre-study


April 15: 180/160 – NBME 11 – I scored even lower on NBME 7 so I was frustrated where I started off but kept on going


Tests after 2 months of hard studying (I took NBME 11 again because I didn’t do well before and didn’t think I would remember the questions and it would still serve as a good prediction)


June 16: 360/198 – NBME 11 – passing!

June 17: 400/207 – NBME 12 ß was extremely happy about this score (considering where I started)

June 27: 390/205 – NBME 13 (this was HARD)

Jul 07: 420/211 – NBME 16

Jul 13: 420/211 – NBME 17


Bummed out hard about the 16/17 scores because I studied really hard, so I pushed my exam date back…


Aug 12: 520/232 – NBME 15 ß fell off the chair due to happiness on this score…


I took uwsa somewhere between the NBMEs:


UWSA 1: 224

UWSA 2: 232 took this with NBME 13 (same day) to practice step 1 exam timings


Aug 17: Step 1


I know my NBMEs weren’t great until my last one, but by the end I was very confident in my knowledge. I knew alooot of answers in the actual exam and after my exam I went over the First Aid (the next day) and found that I got sooo many questions right… what I am scared of are the questions that weren’t in the First Aid and I couldn’t check (except about 5 questions that I remembered through memory)


Thank you all for reading!

Goodluck to everyone who still has to take the exam!

How did you feel coming out of the exam? I'm so nervous because some of my friends say it was so hard but others said it was medium. Worried about the luck of the draw.

 

[mrknowitall]

How did you feel coming out of the exam? I'm so nervous because some of my friends say it was so hard but others said it was medium. Worried about the luck of the draw.

It was a week ago so my confidence has taken a dip but man I was confident that I did good... the difficulty was about the same as NBME but it seemed easier because I had done so many NBMEs and went over their answers/explainations... 1 question was straight out of NBME 15, another one had the same picture different question... I check both and i got both right

 

[super_mom]

It was a week ago so my confidence has taken a dip but man I was confident that I did good... the difficulty was about the same as NBME but it seemed easier because I had done so many NBMEs and went over their answers/explainations... 1 question was straight out of NBME 15, another one had the same picture different question... I check both and i got both right

Can u pls share how u studied and what sources you used especially since u got that big jump on nbme 15 towards the end.

 

[deleted694401]

Anyone know what the current average is?

 

[W19]

230 ...

 

[student456]

When should we take our last NBME before the test? Is 2-3 weeks before test date ok? And how many long stems should I expect? I don't have good practice of doing long stem questions and I'm getting really worried that I will mess up because of that.

 

[Nabin]

When should we take our last NBME before the test? Is 2-3 weeks before test date ok? And how many long stems should I expect? I don't have good practice of doing long stem questions and I'm getting really worried that I will mess up because of that.

When is your exam? I gave NBME 17 a week before the exam and did Fred 150 few days before the exam just to be in practice.

My question stems were longer than NBME. Options were confusing. Some can be really long but its up to you to quickly discern the facts and avoid spending time on the distraction given. But, I guess it evens out over the test. Some questions can be really easy and you save time on those. If you are unsure of an answer, don't dwell too much over it, select your best answer and mark the question and move on to the next. You will save some time to back to it later. Good luck.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Been creeping for several months so thought I'd share my non-monster scores

Final score: 232 - very happy with my results

CBSE: 175 (4 months before)
NBME 13: 194 (2 months before)
NBME 16: 207 (7 weeks before)
UWSA 1: 219 (6 wks)
NBME 15: 217 ( 5 weeks)
NBME 11: 209 ( 4 weeks)
NBME 17: 211 (11 days before) --> freaking out majorly at this point but way too burnt out to push test back
[took 1 wk mental health break]
NBME 12: 220 (6 days)
UWSA 2: 240 (4 days)

- FA x 1 and referenced throughout the way
- UWorld x 2
- UWorld Anki x 1.5 (made a deck and studied constantly
- Pathoma x3 + redid the 1st 3 chapters a 4th time
- Picmonic (mixed into Anki)
- Studied at LEAST 10-12 hrs daily during dedicated study time

Saw the biggest jump in grades with UWorld and Anki, which had been helping me tons throughout MS1 & MS2 (just to prove to stick with what has been working with you for 2 years)

Congrats on the awesome score!

This is exactly what happened to me, however, I didn't take as many NBMEs as you did though and when I saw my score (232, also), I nearly did cartwheels all around my room. All in all, good job and take a nice breather!

 

[student456]

When is your exam? I gave NBME 17 a week before the exam and did Fred 150 few days before the exam just to be in practice.

My question stems were longer than NBME. Options were confusing. Some can be really long but its up to you to quickly discern the facts and avoid spending time on the distraction given. But, I guess it evens out over the test. Some questions can be really easy and you save time on those. If you are unsure of an answer, don't dwell too much over it, select your best answer and mark the question and move on to the next. You will save some time to back to it later. Good luck.

Thank you... I'm going for last week of October. Did you get a lot of calculation questions (physio/biostat)? Is FA enough for EKGs?

 

[iSaruman]

Congrats to people getting their scores back. Whatever score you get, passing Step 1 is an achievement in itself.

Longtime lurker here getting ready to take a smack at the beast in 2016. Is it that time of year yet where someone sets up a 2016 thread?

 

[Nabin]

Thank you... I'm going for last week of October. Did you get a lot of calculation questions (physio/biostat)? Is FA enough for EKGs?

I had only 1-2 calculations on biostat, and they were fairly easy ones, your usual suspects I mean. I had many 'appropriate response' questions. But, they didn't seem tricky to me, or maybe I missed something I don't know but looked fairly straightforward. There were many upside down graphs on physio. Similar concepts were tested, but while factoring in time and all, it became a bit challenging. I had two EKGs. FA covered them. Nothing out of the ordinary. I think it will be trickier in step 2, but for step 1, FA should be more than enough. I had read similar experiences from other posters too regarding it, so you should be fine.

 

[student456]

I had only 1-2 calculations on biostat, and they were fairly easy ones, your usual suspects I mean. I had many 'appropriate response' questions. But, they didn't seem tricky to me, or maybe I missed something I don't know but looked fairly straightforward. There were many upside down graphs on physio. Similar concepts were tested, but while factoring in time and all, it became a bit challenging. I had two EKGs. FA covered them. Nothing out of the ordinary. I think it will be trickier in step 2, but for step 1, FA should be more than enough. I had read similar experiences from other posters too regarding it, so you should be fine.

Ok, so I will stick to FA/UW for EKGs and biostat. Also, were you able to go back to all your marked questions? I'm thinking I should just practice doing questions in one run on qbank and not go back to them since on the real one we won't have time to go back to marked questions.

 

[inthestepmatrix]

Started studying mid-April, my basics were horrible. I understood a lot of concepts but I couldn’t commit anything to memory until I started studying in April. I am not gonna post my study plan/schedule until after my result.


I would like to know if anyone else had the same experience and what their scores were if possible.


Strengths:

Anatomy

Physio (I have very good understanding of physics)


Weakness:

Micro

Biochem

Pharm (got extremely strong by the end)


Took my step 1 one week ago, here are my scores:


Pre-study


April 15: 180/160 – NBME 11 – I scored even lower on NBME 7 so I was frustrated where I started off but kept on going


Tests after 2 months of hard studying (I took NBME 11 again because I didn’t do well before and didn’t think I would remember the questions and it would still serve as a good prediction)


June 16: 360/198 – NBME 11 – passing!

June 17: 400/207 – NBME 12 ß was extremely happy about this score (considering where I started)

June 27: 390/205 – NBME 13 (this was HARD)

Jul 07: 420/211 – NBME 16

Jul 13: 420/211 – NBME 17


Bummed out hard about the 16/17 scores because I studied really hard, so I pushed my exam date back…


Aug 12: 520/232 – NBME 15 ß fell off the chair due to happiness on this score…


I took uwsa somewhere between the NBMEs:


UWSA 1: 224

UWSA 2: 232 took this with NBME 13 (same day) to practice step 1 exam timings


Aug 17: Step 1


I know my NBMEs weren’t great until my last one, but by the end I was very confident in my knowledge. I knew alooot of answers in the actual exam and after my exam I went over the First Aid (the next day) and found that I got sooo many questions right… what I am scared of are the questions that weren’t in the First Aid and I couldn’t check (except about 5 questions that I remembered through memory)


Thank you all for reading!

Goodluck to everyone who still has to take the exam!

You give me hope! You shall pass!

 

[Transposony]

Congrats to people getting their scores back. Whatever score you get, passing Step 1 is an achievement in itself.

Longtime lurker here getting ready to take a smack at the beast in 2016. Is it that time of year yet where someone sets up a 2016 thread?

Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

 

[ironhorse8]

Anyone know about how long it has been taking to get scores back? Is it a constant 4-6 week window or is it less during non peak times?

 

[gunnerdoc]

Received email that scores were going to be released at 11AM at 8AM. Checked anyways, they were up. Got a 240.

 

[knosway14]

Received email that scores were going to be released at 11AM at 8AM. Checked anyways, they were up. Got a 240.

congratulations

 

[knosway14]

Received email that scores were going to be released at 11AM at 8AM. Checked anyways, they were up. Got a 240.

Medium still 230?

 

[gunnerdoc]

Medium still 230?

Average is 230. STDEV is 20.

 

[you.old]

Congratulations @gunnerdoc . I haven't got any email yet. Just waiting. BTW, where did you check? In OASIS?

 

[steph6481]

Received email that scores were going to be released at 11AM at 8AM. Checked anyways, they were up. Got a 240.

Where did you check? Also when did you take your exam?

 

[you.old]

This one's for @Phloston . I've always admired him and he's been very helpful.

Exam: Aug 11
Preparation time: Roughly 1 year. (IMG 2014)
Resources: Usual. FA, UW, Rx, Kaplan (LN + QBank), Pathoma, Goljan, BRS (Path, Phys), HY (Neuro, Molecular, Genetics)
Approach: Used Qbanks as primary source of information. For each question, spent much time consulting FA, reference books and internet. Wikipedia and Google were of tremendous help.
At the end, I didn't do a single complete pass of FA, like cover to cover. But had each of the topics repeated multiple times. Kaplan LNs were initially very useful for building knowledge. After the base was laid, it was not imperative to go over it again.Goljan - only reference. Started with great enthusiasm, but soon realized that it was too much information for me. I felt Pathoma was easy so just skimmed through it. I used BRS Path as recommended by Phloston. I actually liked it very much. But didn't finish it either. Webpath - a little.

Actual test: Felt like I was doing just another NBME with slightly more UW style questions. Could recall 8 definite wrong answers. I guess I missed around 20-25 questions in total. Was confident walking out of the test. Started feeling little nervous as I started knowing my mistakes. About 3 mistakes were really embarassing ones. But I couldn't change anything then. So I decided to move on with life.

Practice tests: Did 1 NBME every tuesday starting 30 June.

NBME 11 (30 June): 269
NBME 12 (7 July): 260
NBME 17 (14 July): 273
NBME 13 (21 July): 260
NBME 16 (28 July): 269
NBME 15 (4 Aug): 271
Average NBME score: 267

USMLE STEP 1 SCORE: 267

Needless to say, I am very happy. Thanks everyone for their support

 

[watchmenaenae]

Out of all the 300 something questions, how can people getting out of the exam still remember a all the questions and answers after an exhausting 8 hours exam? Man I can't remember the page I just read a moment ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[super_mom]

Out of all the 300 something questions, how can people getting out of the exam still remember a all the questions and answers after an exhausting 8 hours exam? Man I can't remember the page I just read a moment ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lmaooooo i always wonder the same thing…..we are all very different some are jus very good in retaining information. all we can do is try our best thats all.

 

[watchmenaenae]

Lol I guess we'll need extra time but good luck to everyone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[you.old]

Don't know about others. But I recalled about 140 questions over the next couple of weeks. Not complete questions, just the themes. I was going through FA even after my exam. I was not liking my life after Step 1 I guess.

Out of all the 300 something questions, how can people getting out of the exam still remember a all the questions and answers after an exhausting 8 hours exam? Man I can't remember the page I just read a moment ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[watchmenaenae]

Well you did a great job. Good luck with step 2


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[Reperfused]

Congratulations @you.old
That's a brilliant score!
Would you please tell if you did Kaplan and RX qbanks online or offline? And did you do all of these two qbanks or selected subjects only? Also, did you take extensive notes from these 2 or minimal or not at all?
Thanks a lot

 

[gunnerdoc]

I took the exam July 27

Congratulations @gunnerdoc . I haven't got any email yet. Just waiting. BTW, where did you check? In OASIS?

Where did you check? Also when did you take your exam?

th, received scores August 19th.

 

[EmetyreUSMLEStep1Tutor1]

This one's for @Phloston . I've always admired him and he's been very helpful.

Exam: Aug 11
Preparation time: Roughly 1 year. (IMG 2014)
Resources: Usual. FA, UW, Rx, Kaplan (LN + QBank), Pathoma, Goljan, BRS (Path, Phys), HY (Neuro, Molecular, Genetics)
Approach: Used Qbanks as primary source of information. For each question, spent much time consulting FA, reference books and internet. Wikipedia and Google were of tremendous help.
At the end, I didn't do a single complete pass of FA, like cover to cover. But had each of the topics repeated multiple times. Kaplan LNs were initially very useful for building knowledge. After the base was laid, it was not imperative to go over it again.Goljan - only reference. Started with great enthusiasm, but soon realized that it was too much information for me. I felt Pathoma was easy so just skimmed through it. I used BRS Path as recommended by Phloston. I actually liked it very much. But didn't finish it either. Webpath - a little.

Actual test: Felt like I was doing just another NBME with slightly more UW style questions. Could recall 8 definite wrong answers. I guess I missed around 20-25 questions in total. Was confident walking out of the test. Started feeling little nervous as I started knowing my mistakes. About 3 mistakes were really embarassing ones. But I couldn't change anything then. So I decided to move on with life.

Practice tests: Did 1 NBME every tuesday starting 30 June.

NBME 11 (30 June): 268
NBME 12 (7 July): 260
NBME 17 (14 July): 273
NBME 13 (21 July): 261
NBME 16 (28 July): 269
NBME 15 (4 Aug): 271
Average NBME score: 267

USMLE STEP 1 SCORE: 267

Needless to say, I am very happy. Thanks everyone for their support

Great score! My congrats! Can you please tell me your schedule for a day?

 

[Phloston]

This one's for @Phloston . I've always admired him and he's been very helpful.

Exam: Aug 11
Preparation time: Roughly 1 year. (IMG 2014)
Resources: Usual. FA, UW, Rx, Kaplan (LN + QBank), Pathoma, Goljan, BRS (Path, Phys), HY (Neuro, Molecular, Genetics)
Approach: Used Qbanks as primary source of information. For each question, spent much time consulting FA, reference books and internet. Wikipedia and Google were of tremendous help.
At the end, I didn't do a single complete pass of FA, like cover to cover. But had each of the topics repeated multiple times. Kaplan LNs were initially very useful for building knowledge. After the base was laid, it was not imperative to go over it again.Goljan - only reference. Started with great enthusiasm, but soon realized that it was too much information for me. I felt Pathoma was easy so just skimmed through it. I used BRS Path as recommended by Phloston. I actually liked it very much. But didn't finish it either. Webpath - a little.

Actual test: Felt like I was doing just another NBME with slightly more UW style questions. Could recall 8 definite wrong answers. I guess I missed around 20-25 questions in total. Was confident walking out of the test. Started feeling little nervous as I started knowing my mistakes. About 3 mistakes were really embarassing ones. But I couldn't change anything then. So I decided to move on with life.

Practice tests: Did 1 NBME every tuesday starting 30 June.

NBME 11 (30 June): 268
NBME 12 (7 July): 260
NBME 17 (14 July): 273
NBME 13 (21 July): 261
NBME 16 (28 July): 269
NBME 15 (4 Aug): 271
Average NBME score: 267

USMLE STEP 1 SCORE: 267

Needless to say, I am very happy. Thanks everyone for their support

No matter what the numerical outcome may have been, the most important thing is the amount of hard work and dedication you've shown having committed yourself to the process. The discipline carries with you beyond the Step, which will become more apparent to you as time goes on. I think students here would be happy and fortunate for your continued guidance and input.

 

[you.old]

I didn't have a strict plan to follow throughout my study period.
There used to be 2 types of days for me:
1. Working days: (9-3 working hours) - USMLE study at 6-9, then 5-10 (grossly)
2. Nonworking days: USMLE study at 6-12, then 3-10 (grossly)
Net time (efficiency): Roughly 60-70%. This gave me about 5 net study hours during working days and about 8 net study hours during nonworking days

I loved doing questions more than just reading books.

Great score! My congrats! Can you please tell me your schedule for a day?

 

[Aim260]

Hi everyone I gave my exam on 1st of September
When should I be expecting my results ? 15th or 22nd ?
Is anyone in the same boat as me !?
I didn't find the exam difficult
I thought it was fair and I did ok
Hoping for a good result