USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[WeedForLunch]

I know this is quite early but most American Students have finished giving the test for this year.
I am an IMG and have been prepping for the steps since quite some time and have seen Phloston, Transposony's and others' threads for their respective years and how helpful they have been.

I intend on giving step in Jan.. let's share timetables, plans and other stuff on how everyone intends on taking on this beast.

P.S. : I think it is not that early.. the 2015/2016 threads were started in September/October.. but in true SDN gunner style..i wanna start it in August..

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[Espadaleader]

How many people on here have completed their clinical year and passed all of their NBME shelf exams prior to doing dedicated for Step I? I go to a school that does that and I know several schools that have transitioned to that model since I've started. I sit for Step I in two weeks and I'll post my study plan after. I treated the exam more like a NBME Shelf, UFASketch for the first two weeks, then just UW, scoring above 90% on second pass. We'll see if this method works.

Kudos to those studying for this without having ward experience or shelf exams cause I swear I didn't know anything until I started cracking open UW and casefiles. And for people who are overwhelmed, its natural. Even if you're not scoring as high as you would like, that doesn't mean you aren't a strong student. I was in the bottom 4th of my class and I went to clinical year and I was able to literally touch currant jelly sputum or see a hernia in clinic or prescribe antibiotics with co-signed orders. One day I woke up like learning and new language and I was fluent. You get pimped enough you'll get it. Anyway, I did well and I am scoring similarly to what you see on the forum. A lot of med school isn't intelligence. Its muscle memory.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[Nucleus Accumbens]

How many people on here have completed their clinical year and passed all of their NBME shelf exams prior to doing dedicated for Step I? I go to a school that does that and I know several schools that have transitioned to that model since I've started. I sit for Step I in two weeks and I'll post my study plan after. I treated the exam more like a NBME Shelf, UFASketch for the first two weeks, then just UW, scoring above 90% on second pass. We'll see if this method works.

Kudos to those studying for this without having ward experience or shelf exams cause I swear I didn't know anything until I started cracking open UW and casefiles. And for people who are overwhelmed, its natural. Even if you're not scoring as high as you would like, that doesn't mean you aren't a strong student. I was in the bottom 4th of my class and I went to clinical year and I was able to literally touch currant jelly sputum or see a hernia in clinic or prescribe antibiotics with co-signed orders. One day I woke up like learning and new language and I was fluent. You get pimped enough you'll get it. Anyway, I did well and I am scoring similarly to what you see on the forum. A lot of med school isn't intelligence. Its muscle memory.

Sorry for the long post.

Ya, my school is still in the ice age apparently. I feel like I should ride the doctor short bus when I do UW blocks.


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[whatisthisstuff]

Hey everyone,
So I've got 9 days till my Step 1, and I would like to do 1 more practice test. I have done NBME 16 (1 months ago), the free 120, and UWSA1 last week. Our school provided us with the Kaplan simulated exams, and I was planning on taking one to help get my endurance up since it's full length. I was wondering if anyone recommends the Kaplan test or if you would say I should take two NBME's or 1 NBME/UWSA2 to gain the endurance and also take a more helpful test? I do have to pay for the NBME tests, or this probably would have been an easy decision.

You should do one of the more recent NBMEs for sure. 60 bucks is not much in the scheme of your education. If you already have paid for UWSA I would take that as well as you get explanations (and again probably buy it if you want, as I think those are only 30). You can do them at once if you want but I never did that and didn't feel like test day was some new beast or anything. You'll be a little tired regardless so I'd do whatever works best with your schedule. If you were only going to take 2 then I'd recommend NBME 18 or 19 and then the other UWSA. If only one then it's a toss up. Maybe UWSA as it's cheaper and you get explanations but you really should have taken more NBMEs imo.


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[lucky01]

Kudos to those studying for this without having ward experience or shelf exams cause I swear I didn't know anything until I started cracking open UW and casefiles.

Sorry for the long post.

Yea it's definitely not easy studying for step 1 with zero clinical experience. I try to visualize real life scenarios in front of me while doing questions as best as I can. It's still quite challenging seeing everything just on paper, I generally learn better hands on, with something tangible to work with.

 

[Event_Horizon]

What an interesting day. Got 265 on UWSA1 and I don't know how to feel about it because I know it over-predicts. Hopefully a good sign! Do UWSA consistently over-predict like 10-20 points? I thought I read earlier that some people said that (anecdotally) that they seem to be a bit more predictive and the curve changed (like last year or something).

NBME 17: 210
NBME 18: 225
NBME 16: 244 (1 week ago)
UWSA: 265 (today)

3 weeks left until D-day! Keep the motivation high everyone!

 

[Dr Stephen T Colbert DFA]

What an interesting day. Got 265 on UWSA1 and I don't know how to feel about it because I know it over-predicts. Hopefully a good sign! Do UWSA consistently over-predict like 10-20 points? I thought I read earlier that some people said that (anecdotally) that they seem to be a bit more predictive and the curve changed (like last year or something).

NBME 17: 210
NBME 18: 225
NBME 16: 244 (1 week ago)
UWSA: 265 (today)

3 weeks left until D-day! Keep the motivation high everyone!

Mine only overpredicted by about 5 pts or less, but IDK what happens when your score is above 260. Honestly, if you take multiple other practice exams and continue to get high scores, you might want to take the exam earlier. It saved me a week and a half of anxiety depends on your goals

 

[ridethecliche]

Anyone have any tips for not overthinking things? I really don't care if I don't learn anything more before my exam. But it would be really nice to stop getting a bunch of questions wrong in UWorld where the % correct for others is like 75%...
I legit second guess the stupidest ish.

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

they are delayed until 6/28. I took mine 5/5, no score yet.

so even for June 5th we should expect the score on the 28th or do we still get the regular 4

Ya, my school is still in the ice age apparently. I feel like I should ride the doctor short bus when I do UW blocks.


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Anyone have any tips for not overthinking things? I really don't care if I don't learn anything more before my exam. But it would be really nice to stop getting a bunch of questions wrong in UWorld where the % correct for others is like 75%...
I legit second guess the stupidest ish.

i did this alot, i slowed down on the questions and started asking myself what are they trying to ask me ? then i read the answers and say are they asking me that so and so does this ?

 

[BeanBag2]

Hey guys, long time lurker and now I am really flipping out and need advice. 18 days till exam day and feels like I ran into a brick wall.
6 weeks ago UWSA 1 - 228
nbme 16 -209 5 weeks out
Nbme 15- 217 4 weeks out
Nbme 13 - 232 3 weeks out
UWSA 2 - 220 Today( so much for over predicting, wtf am I doing wrong)

I don't know what happened I felt the test literally asked me every question I was weak on and nothing played to my strengths. I got every behavioral science question wrong. There was just so many weird experimentals I couldnt follow along with. I don't know if it was a bad day or I just truly suck at uworld. Really need advice and feeling discouraged right now. Hoping for a 235 +, now hard to see that happening.

 

[Womb Raider]

Hey guys, long time lurker and now I am really flipping out and need advice. 18 days till exam day and feels like I ran into a brick wall.
6 weeks ago UWSA 1 - 228
nbme 16 -209 5 weeks out
Nbme 15- 217 4 weeks out
Nbme 13 - 232 3 weeks out
UWSA 2 - 220 Today( so much for over predicting, wtf am I doing wrong)

I don't know what happened I felt the test literally asked me every question I was weak on and nothing played to my strengths. I got every behavioral science question wrong. There was just so many weird experimentals I couldnt follow along with. I don't know if it was a bad day or I just truly suck at uworld. Really need advice and feeling discouraged right now. Hoping for a 235 +, now hard to see that happening.

Honestly not bad considering you're still pre-med.

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

Hey guys, long time lurker and now I am really flipping out and need advice. 18 days till exam day and feels like I ran into a brick wall.
6 weeks ago UWSA 1 - 228
nbme 16 -209 5 weeks out
Nbme 15- 217 4 weeks out
Nbme 13 - 232 3 weeks out
UWSA 2 - 220 Today( so much for over predicting, wtf am I doing wrong)

I don't know what happened I felt the test literally asked me every question I was weak on and nothing played to my strengths. I got every behavioral science question wrong. There was just so many weird experimentals I couldnt follow along with. I don't know if it was a bad day or I just truly suck at uworld. Really need advice and feeling discouraged right now. Hoping for a 235 +, now hard to see that happening.

were the question more like uworld or nbmes ? and if nbmes which one could you compare it to. Im sure you did well, ive never met anyone that came out of it feeling good

 

[BeanBag2]

were the question more like uworld or nbmes ? and if nbmes which one could you compare it to. Im sure you did well, ive never met anyone that came out of it feeling good

I didnt take the exam still have 18 days left, was looking for advice cause my uwsa2 dropped significantly

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

I didnt take the exam still have 18 days left, was looking for advice cause my uwsa2 dropped significantly

wow ive been studying for too long, sorry completely miss read that. Are you getting questions wrong from lack of knowledge or just miss reading questions ? because if its a knowledge gap you gotta work on your weakness

 

[BeanBag2]

Honestly not bad considering you're still pre-med.

Never updated my profile, thats how much I lurk

 

[BeanBag2]

wow ive been studying for too long, sorry completely miss read that. Are you getting questions wrong from lack of knowledge or just miss reading questions ? because if its a knowledge gap you gotta work on your weakness

Its hard to say, I don't think its a lack of content but it seems to be more of understanding what Uwolrd is asking. I never have trouble when nbme ask experimental quesion but cant seem to get passed all the extra bull**** uworld puts in. Changed like 5 or 6 answers from correct to incorrect. Wasnt picking up on key words like I normally do.

Idk I really think this test just played to all my weaknesses.

 

[Rekt]

Where do you find the free 120?

 

[AthleteDoc7]

Its hard to say, I don't think its a lack of content but it seems to be more of understanding what Uwolrd is asking. I never have trouble when nbme ask experimental quesion but cant seem to get passed all the extra bull**** uworld puts in. Changed like 5 or 6 answers from correct to incorrect. Wasnt picking up on key words like I normally do.

Idk I really think this test just played to all my weaknesses.

if you feel it played to your weaknesses, then go study those weaknesses and take another practice test next week. I think you'll be fine you're not too far off

 

[Womb Raider]

Where do you find the free 120?

Here

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

if you feel it played to your weaknesses, then go study those weaknesses and take another practice test next week. I think you'll be fine you're not too far off

dudes spot on , i was weak in biostats and i only studied it and went up 10 points on my most recent nbme. I feel like 4-6 question make a huge difference on the nbme and step

 

[D.O.aenerys]

I can't fathom a med student studying for boards even remotely caring what other people are doing in the library. This has to be in your head.

Awh man I wish - but its quite obvious when Type A's are being a-holes. That would be so convenient tho, thank you for the thought!

 

[hellomynameis01]

B&B. And YouTube "biostatistics Summary Step1 --The Basics" by Randy Neil. Doing this in one night made me get 85%+ on UW questions over Biostats. I plan to do it again this upcoming Thursday.


Can someone tell me what B&B stands for?

 

[Womb Raider]

Boards and Beyond

 

[Event_Horizon]

Mine only overpredicted by about 5 pts or less, but IDK what happens when your score is above 260. Honestly, if you take multiple other practice exams and continue to get high scores, you might want to take the exam earlier. It saved me a week and a half of anxiety depends on your goals

I've actually been thinking about this recently, but I think I really need these last 3 weeks for validation that I am ready. I don't feel like I have taken enough NBME/UWSA to feel comfortable with my consistency. That is my plan for the next 3 weeks!

Anyone have any tips for not overthinking things? I really don't care if I don't learn anything more before my exam. But it would be really nice to stop getting a bunch of questions wrong in UWorld where the % correct for others is like 75%...
I legit second guess the stupidest ish.

This may sound totally dumb, but it has really helped me. When you get to any question, try to identify the BASIC concept they are trying to asking you. Yes, many questions try to trick you or get you to remember some stupid obscure detail, but for the most part any question can be narrowed down to a simple BASIC science concept (they may just be asking it in a tricky way). For a majority of the time, your assumption is most likely going to be correct and you can either a) narrow down answers that don't fit or b) if you REALLY don't know what they are asking, just pick the answer that sounds like a basic science concept they would ask you about on step 1. Again, this has seemed to work for me and can help from getting too bogged down with all the crap that can come up in a question stem (eg just because they have type 2 diabetes doesn't mean their anemia has be related to T2DM in some way), but YMMV!

 

[Osteoth]

Yea it's definitely not easy studying for step 1 with zero clinical experience. I try to visualize real life scenarios in front of me while doing questions as best as I can. It's still quite challenging seeing everything just on paper, I generally learn better hands on, with something tangible to work with.

Yeah I was thinking the same way but a friend of mine actually pointed out that in the clinic you see a lot of bread and butter stuff, but the zebras that are often tested on the boards you don't see, so its almost a disadvantage in that sense.

 

[ridethecliche]

so even for June 5th we should expect the score on the 28th or do we still get the regular 4


i did this alot, i slowed down on the questions and started asking myself what are they trying to ask me ? then i read the answers and say are they asking me that so and so does this ?

This may sound totally dumb, but it has really helped me. When you get to any question, try to identify the BASIC concept they are trying to asking you. Yes, many questions try to trick you or get you to remember some stupid obscure detail, but for the most part any question can be narrowed down to a simple BASIC science concept (they may just be asking it in a tricky way). For a majority of the time, your assumption is most likely going to be correct and you can either a) narrow down answers that don't fit or b) if you REALLY don't know what they are asking, just pick the answer that sounds like a basic science concept they would ask you about on step 1. Again, this has seemed to work for me and can help from getting too bogged down with all the crap that can come up in a question stem (eg just because they have type 2 diabetes doesn't mean their anemia has be related to T2DM in some way), but YMMV!

Thanks guys. I dealt with similar issues on the MCAT and was able to figure them out in time back then.... ages ago.

I have an issue moving past a question if I don't get it. I really have to get better at triaging questions to come back to especially since sometimes questions later on can help you with previous questions. It's something I'm definitely trying to put to work before test day in.... 2 weeks. YIKES!

 

[mymembernames]

Took the beast today, feel like I just got ran over by a huge truck.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Took the beast today, feel like I just got ran over by a huge truck.

I'm sure you did great. Can you elaborate on your experience when ready?


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[AthleteDoc7]

Thanks guys. I dealt with similar issues on the MCAT and was able to figure them out in time back then.... ages ago.

I have an issue moving past a question if I don't get it. I really have to get better at triaging questions to come back to especially since sometimes questions later on can help you with previous questions. It's something I'm definitely trying to put to work before test day in.... 2 weeks. YIKES!

yeah I do something similar to what others are saying. UWorld is notorious for making easy concepts sound stupidly hard in the question stem, so take a second, ask yourself what's the basic principle behind this weird "research study" or whatever they're asking me about, then go from there. i'm also hoping the real thing won't be trying to trick you as much as Uworld, but who knows. you got this! you've been working hard, it'll come together.

with that said i'm three weeks out myself, and the amount I have to do is scary. taking an NBME on sunday so we'll see where I'm at. though i'm considering doing NBME 19 so hopefully it won't totally destroy my confidence and my soul lol

 

[oberynmartyl]

It's

were the question more like uworld or nbmes ? and if nbmes which one could you compare it to. Im sure you did well, ive never met anyone that came out of it feeling good

It was more like u world for me in the actual exam

 

[admisam33]

Really disappointed with myself. Gave NBME 13 two weeks ago and got 203 with 44 wrong. Worked my bum off for two weeks.Today I gave NBME 15 and got 203 again with 48 wrong. I really thought it was going well but the last block somehow had all my weaknesses piled into one block... 6 weeks to the exam .. I have a really bitter taste atm. Renal and Respiratory were my weakness then and still gave me problems despite doing it well during these weeks.. Confidence is really low. Honest advice please!
Thank you.

 

[Nucleus Accumbens]

Really disappointed with myself. Gave NBME 13 two weeks ago and got 203 with 44 wrong. Worked my bum off for two weeks.Today I gave NBME 15 and got 203 again with 48 wrong. I really thought it was going well but the last block somehow had all my weaknesses piled into one block... 6 weeks to the exam .. I have a really bitter taste atm. Renal and Respiratory were my weakness then and still gave me problems despite doing it well during these weeks.. Confidence is really low. Honest advice please!
Thank you.

Plenty of time. Assessments are designed to exploit those weaknesses. You sound like you know where you suck so hammer those topics specifically with everything you got! You can do this!


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[yankees527]

Took the exam also

 

[admisam33]

Thank you for the motivation !!!!! The breakdown put me on avg on all subjects but i felt these two systems had me on edge during the exam... will try again but I NEED TO SEE AN IMPROVEMENT which will do wonders for my confidence. I am a bit confused on how to plan these next few weeks thats all.

Plenty of time. Assessments are designed to exploit those weaknesses. You sound like you know where you suck so hammer those topics specifically with everything you got! You can do this!


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[Brorthopedic]

Thank you for the motivation !!!!! The breakdown put me on avg on all subjects but i felt these two systems had me on edge during the exam... will try again but I NEED TO SEE AN IMPROVEMENT which will do wonders for my confidence. I am a bit confused on how to plan these next few weeks thats all.

Maybe do uwsa1 next to build your confidence a bit

 

[admisam33]

Maybe do uwsa1 next to build your confidence a bit

Will take that into consideration!! Im just confused on what I am doing wrong!

 

[Eagles6389]

It's just a bummer because I come from a school where the average student scores a 245 or higher and these scores are used to rank us.

Jeez where do you go, Harvard? That's an insanely high average. From your practice scores, I'd definitely say you will likely hit 240+. Everyone makes stupid mistakes during the Real Deal, don't beat yourself up about it

 

[Brorthopedic]

Thank you for the motivation !!!!! The breakdown put me on avg on all subjects but i felt these two systems had me on edge during the exam... will try again but I NEED TO SEE AN IMPROVEMENT which will do wonders for my confidence. I am a bit confused on how to plan these next few weeks thats all.

Are you doing questions or reading/watching content?

 

[KonoMDda]

Jeez where do you go, Harvard? That's an insanely high average. From your practice scores, I'd definitely say you will likely hit 240+. Everyone makes stupid mistakes during the Real Deal, don't beat yourself up about it

Haha no I don't go to Harvard.

 

[Nucleus Accumbens]

Hey all, longtime lurker here. I took my exam a couple of weeks ago and am waiting for my scores to come out on 6/28. The wait is killer. My dedicated study time was shorter than this wait haha.

I'm not really sure what to expect come score release day. I started off my study period with some significant knowledge gaps. I scored around a 215 on my school-administered exam at the beginning of the study period.

I studied the usual UFAP and then took 4 NBMEs over 4 weeks.
NBME 16: 242 (4 weeks out)
NBME 17: 263 (3 weeks out)
NBME 18: 255 (1 week out)
NBME 19: 246 (4 days out)

As you can tell, my spread is pretty wide. I think NBME 17 was a fluke because I thought it was hella easy and it hit all my strengths. I finished each section with 20-25 minutes to spare even after checking my answers. I thought all the others were pretty difficult. When I compared my score reports across the four tests, I didn't have any consistent weaknesses. It just sort of varied from test to test.

I went into the test hoping for a 240, though I would be satisfied with anything over a 235. The actual exam was very difficult for me. I missed a number of gimme questions on the first two sections because I was still getting into the groove. I was marking like 10-12 questions per section and I'm pretty sure I got at least 35-45 wrong. Sighhh. I did feel that the test hit on a lot of topics that I wasn't comfortable with, so I would not be surprised if I scored below my last NBME or NBME average. It's just a bummer because I go to a school where the average student scores a 245 or higher and these scores are used to rank us.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Just wondered if anyone had feedback or had a similar score spread? I mostly just wanted company during the wait!

245? I think my class avg is like 220


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[Osteoth]

Haha no I don't go to Harvard.

Two guesses:
Penn
Wash U

 

[mymembernames]

I'm sure you did great. Can you elaborate on your experience when ready?


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Thanks. I thought it was more challenging than any of the practice tests. Probably most similar to NBME 18, at least in terms of difficulty. Question stems were also longer and I felt rushed finishing most sections. Definitely much more challenging than the questions in NBME 19. I have already counted at least 10-15 stupid mistakes I made since I got stuck between two answer choices and had to guess or changed since I just couldn't narrow it down any further.
I did get the full 280 questions and at times felt like I was doing Kaplan questions that would make really uncomfortable trying to decide between two answer choices.

 

[mymembernames]

Took the exam also

There were quite a few wtf questions and nit picky anatomy questions

Counted like 13 probably wrong already :/

Btw got the full 280 questions so hopefully that's a good thing in terms of scoring

Pretty sure we took the same test! Felt really challenging to me. Hopefully the curve helps...

 

[Womb Raider]

Two guesses:
Penn
Wash U

Probably Baylor.

 

[yankees527]

.

 

[mymembernames]

the annoying part is that even AFTER looking the questions up, there is still no clear cut answer....

Definitively agree.


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[Nucleus Accumbens]

Definitively agree.


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Experimental questions most likely. Or you are forgetting/misinterpreting what you thought you saw.

 

[admisam33]

Are you doing questions or reading/watching content?

I do 2 random uworld blocks and then FA and Pathoma the rest of the day.... I do a system a day..... But the problem is that by the time ive done all sustems ive forget the first thing i read! any alternative way of minimizing this prob.
Thank you

 

[Waterlover]

I do 2 random uworld blocks and then FA and Pathoma the rest of the day.... I do a system a day..... But the problem is that by the time ive done all sustems ive forget the first thing i read! any alternative way of minimizing this prob.
Thank you

I do the same thing and I find it hard to get through even half of a system in just FA alone, let alone going through the whole FA chapter and Pathoma when I'm doing 80 questions a day. And I commit 12-14 hours a day. You need to make sure you're actually absorbing the material, and not doing it just to do it.

 

[Brorthopedic]

I do 2 random uworld blocks and then FA and Pathoma the rest of the day.... I do a system a day..... But the problem is that by the time ive done all sustems ive forget the first thing i read! any alternative way of minimizing this prob.
Thank you

Is this your first pass with Uworld? Because if it is, you should be going way slower in reviewing those blocks (especially if you're scoring below 230s). It took me ~4-5 hours to diligently review one block when I was on my first pass.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Is this your first pass with Uworld? Because if it is, you should be going way slower in reviewing those blocks (especially if you're scoring below 230s). It took me ~4-5 hours to diligently review one block when I was on my first pass.

Same. It's taking me about 4-5 hours per block of 40.


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