USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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WeedForLunch

WeedForLunch

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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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Took it today, it felt like the last practice material I took...so UWSA2 and the free 120. Almost deceptive how much it felt like that stuff, so no I'm scared.

I feel like that means the grading curve is going to kill me. But it's over, I'm 50% done with this.
 
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Karasu said:
Took it today, it felt like the last practice material I took...so UWSA2 and the free 120. Almost deceptive how much it felt like that stuff, so no I'm scared.

I feel like that means the grading curve is going to kill me. But it's over, I'm 50% done with this.
Click to expand...

Congrats!!


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Also tested today! Definitely some curve balls/ stuff I had never thought of before, but it seemed like a good mix between UW and NBME questions. My test had some very nitpicky/detailed neuro and microbiology stuff though, but also had some questions that were almost identical to questions I had seen on past NBMEs.
 
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Word of advice for those taking exams soon. Listen to goljan for hemodyanamics and fluids. It is so helpful for understanding everything. It adds more clinical to the scientific stuff that pathoma covers.
 
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262 in step 1- My story. Check out the pdf
 

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mymembernames said:
Random question: How does the difficulty compare between USMLE and COMLEX 1?
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Just took both 2 weeks ago. The USMLE is tougher than the comlex. More higher order questions that really make you think. A lot of comlex questions simply ask for a diagnosis based on classic presentations. However, it's 50 questions/hour on the comlex and there is an extra section. I wasn't fatigued after the USMLE but I was seriously dead after the comlex. Also for the comlex you have to do 2 hours worth of questions before you can take a break. My comlex was biochem light and pharm and micro heavy. And don't forget about ankle/foot OMM. Know your vertebral levels and chapmans points and just go over basics of each treatment and you'll be fine for OMM. Overall an easier test but fatigue was definitely an issue, at least for me.
 
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mymembernames said:
Random question: How does the difficulty compare between USMLE and COMLEX 1?
Click to expand...

Agree with @docbsb2015 it was a different kind of challenging. The easy questions were so easy I had to reread the stem to make sure I wasn't missing something. But the questions themselves were written so poorly, and added with the volume of questions on the test just makes for a cocktail of strenuous pain and misery. Qstems on the USMLE made sense, flowed well, and allowed me to utilize my test-taking skills to quickly get the answer. Qstems on the COMLEX are 2x as long, have all these vague descriptors that don't really help with the differential, and do not flow well. After my USMLE I could have honestly studied if I wanted, but after the COMLEX I just wanted to lie still with my eyes closed.
 
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Guys, just out of curiosity, what is COMLEX and what are DO students? I keep seeing these terms mentioned and it sort of feels like there are two medical school systems running in parallel in the US (DO -> COMLEX & regular medical school -> USMLE).
 
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Rahas said:
Guys, just out of curiosity, what is COMLEX and what are DO students? I keep seeing these terms mentioned and it sort of feels like there are two medical school systems running in parallel in the US (DO -> COMLEX & regular medical school -> USMLE).
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US has both allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) schools. DO schools learn the same things as MD but also have a class on osteopathic manipulative medicine. Some is useful, most is not. DO schools are usually your more atypical students, (nontraditional).
 
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Rahas said:
Guys, just out of curiosity, what is COMLEX and what are DO students? I keep seeing these terms mentioned and it sort of feels like there are two medical school systems running in parallel in the US (DO -> COMLEX & regular medical school -> USMLE).
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Super easy answer since this is the usmle study thread. You can come on over to the Med Student DO subforum and see some more in depth information.

The USA has 2 paths to become a licensed physician. MD and DO. MD is allopathic schools and DO are osteopathic schools. Curriculum between the two are 98% the same except the DO schools have lectures and labs over OMM - OMM is focused on MSK treatments and function. MD students will take USMLE as their licensing exam in order to graduate medical school and apply for residencies (ACGME). DO students take COMLEX in order to graduate medical school and apply to residencies (AOA) - but DO students can also take USMLE and apply to ACGME residencies as well. There is a merger between ACGME and AOA coming up soon but that's a giant topic that still has a ton of uknowns related to it.
 
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Any of you guys who recently took the exam get any questions that were straight inheritance recall questions? I feel like I can't remember even classic inheritance patterns anyone. Gonna kick myself on test day if I can't remember something stupid easy like the hemophilias being X-linked.
 
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Event_Horizon said:
Any of you guys who recently took the exam get any questions that were straight inheritance recall questions? I feel like I can't remember even classic inheritance patterns anyone. Gonna kick myself on test day if I can't remember something stupid easy like the hemophilias being X-linked.
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Took it yesterday and no I did not. You'll probably be given a family tree and be asked something about that, but nothing like "how is neurofibromatosis inherited?"

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Womb Raider said:
Are you saying all of the questions in the CBSSAs are retired or just some of them?
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All of them...

Do you think theyre going to put out active questions!?

KingD said:
Took it yesterday and no I did not. You'll probably be given a family tree and be asked something about that, but nothing like "how is neurofibromatosis inherited?"

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You can't say that for certain since every exam is different and questions other than the ones you were asked exist in each category.
 
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ridethecliche said:
All of them...

Do you think theyre going to put out active questions!?



You can't say that for certain since every exam is different and questions other than the ones you were asked exist in each category.
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I had an exact repeat of one of the CBSSA questions on my real step1 test. The girl I studied with had a different repeat question on hers.
 
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Same content does not equal repeat.

I doubt you had a question that was exactly the same word for word with the same answer choices. And if you did, it blows my mind.

I thought that the CBSSAs contained retired questions...
 
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to all those talking about weird questions remember theres always the possibility of thoss being experimental. you also have to remember that in the test there is alot of pressure on you, so questions you would know how to answer outside of the test can appear to be difficult or ambiguous, and then there are those questions where you may have studied it but it was so low yield and obscure that you just didnt study it as much, just the name of the game for this test. its like that one question on uworld talking about chickungunya fever, it had literally only been mentioned once in first aid and no info on the disease was given and there was very little chance any of us reading much on it. also the "harder" the test the better the curve is likely to be. i say this because as I nervously wait for my score I've had to convince myself I did everything I could have and now its just a waiting game. go out and enjoy yourselves for the next few weeks, theres always time to angst yourself later!
 
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My friend took it yesterday only had 20 questions in his last block. How does that even work or fair for the people who have to do the extra 20 questions? He had the whole full 60 minutes too. Anyway, I'm pretty sure 20+ questions are experimental then.
 
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kenjixshadow said:
My friend took it yesterday only had 20 questions in his last block. How does that even work or fair for the people who have to do the extra 20 questions? He had the whole full 60 minutes too. Anyway, I'm pretty sure 20+ questions are experimental then.
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I had 40 questions in my last block and it was coincidentally one of my toughest, perhaps it was the exhaustion but I still felt like I could do two more blocks when I finished
 
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kenjixshadow said:
My friend took it yesterday only had 20 questions in his last block. How does that even work or fair for the people who have to do the extra 20 questions? He had the whole full 60 minutes too. Anyway, I'm pretty sure 20+ questions are experimental then.
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Thats a little ridiculous
 
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Hey guys, I really need some insight/advice because I'm very worried/stressed. I have my exam in 5 days and I am so stressed all I want to do is PASS because I want an uncompetitive specialty! I'm very worried that I'll get a form with all my weaknesses and might fail or something. How likely is it that I fail this stupid test? I guessed well on the nbme tests and so I feel like I'll guess wrong on the real thing and come close to failing. I'm also progressively doing worse on the nbme tests which is worrying...

My nbme scores are:
15 ( 3 weeks out): 242
16 (2 weeks out) 238
17( 1 week out): 238
18 (taken today): 236
 
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Merely said:
Hey guys, I really need some insight/advice because I'm very worried/stressed. I have my exam in 5 days and I am so stressed all I want to do is PASS because I want an uncompetitive specialty! I'm very worried that I'll get a form with all my weaknesses and might fail or something. How likely is it that I fail this stupid test? I guessed well on the nbme tests and so I feel like I'll guess wrong on the real thing and come close to failing. I'm also progressively doing worse on the nbme tests which is worrying...

My nbme scores are:
15 ( 3 weeks out): 242
16 (2 weeks out) 238
17( 1 week out): 238
18 (taken today): 236
Click to expand...

You are scoring an average of just under 240 on NBMEs that usually underpredict by a tiny bit.... (according to the SDN trend)

...I am not a doctor yet, but if I was, I would write you a refillable prescription for chill pills.
 
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Merely said:
Hey guys, I really need some insight/advice because I'm very worried/stressed. I have my exam in 5 days and I am so stressed all I want to do is PASS because I want an uncompetitive specialty! I'm very worried that I'll get a form with all my weaknesses and might fail or something. How likely is it that I fail this stupid test? I guessed well on the nbme tests and so I feel like I'll guess wrong on the real thing and come close to failing. I'm also progressively doing worse on the nbme tests which is worrying...

My nbme scores are:
15 ( 3 weeks out): 242
16 (2 weeks out) 238
17( 1 week out): 238
18 (taken today): 236
Click to expand...

With your scores you should have no problem passing this test. Ppl say that the nbmes tend to underpredict so you should be good. Just be sure to pace yourself, have a good breakfast, sleep well the night before, and take it easy the day before (maybe light studying if you can't help yourself).
 
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Merely said:
Hey guys, I really need some insight/advice because I'm very worried/stressed. I have my exam in 5 days and I am so stressed all I want to do is PASS because I want an uncompetitive specialty! I'm very worried that I'll get a form with all my weaknesses and might fail or something. How likely is it that I fail this stupid test? I guessed well on the nbme tests and so I feel like I'll guess wrong on the real thing and come close to failing. I'm also progressively doing worse on the nbme tests which is worrying...

My nbme scores are:
15 ( 3 weeks out): 242
16 (2 weeks out) 238
17( 1 week out): 238
18 (taken today): 236
Click to expand...
You will almost certainly score between 230-250. There is much less than 1% chance of you failing. The variance in your NBME scores is minuscule.
 
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Merely said:
Hey guys, I really need some insight/advice because I'm very worried/stressed. I have my exam in 5 days and I am so stressed all I want to do is PASS because I want an uncompetitive specialty! I'm very worried that I'll get a form with all my weaknesses and might fail or something. How likely is it that I fail this stupid test? I guessed well on the nbme tests and so I feel like I'll guess wrong on the real thing and come close to failing. I'm also progressively doing worse on the nbme tests which is worrying...

My nbme scores are:
15 ( 3 weeks out): 242
16 (2 weeks out) 238
17( 1 week out): 238
18 (taken today): 236
Click to expand...
Don't panic I think you'll be fine. There is so much variability on each nbme and on the real deal that it is hard to say what is correlative. At some point you just hope they test more of what you know. On nbme 17 I scored 234, 3 days later I did 248 on nbme 18. The actual exam didn't seem to be like either of those nbme's. In the end you've put in the work you'll be fine.
 
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sss2g2 said:
Does anyone know what a 74% correlates to on Free 120?? Freaking out test in a few days.
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I saw something online once saying "% correct x 2.68 + 11"... highly doubt it's accurate at all. don't work yourself up over it. not worth the headache. just do the best you can and be confident (easier said than done I know)
 
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The rough estimates I've heard are 80% is a 230 and 90% is a 240, but it's much easier than the real thing so who knows.
 
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Guys I need a quick answer please. If I activate my online NBME assessment test and wish to do 1 block today then 2nd block tomorrow then 3rd block after a week (I know this is not recommended)... is it possible to do it this way, provided that I finish all the blocks within 20 days?

Thanks a bunch
 
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Desmin said:
262 in step 1- My story. Check out the pdf
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my stats are very similar to yours. Did not do nearly as many qbanks questions though. Conrgrats. I hope I score above 260 too. It's my ultimate goal, but like you, will be thrilled with anything above 250. I take the beast in 3 days! Can't wait to finish
 
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GI Guy said:
my stats are very similar to yours. Did not do nearly as many qbanks questions though. Conrgrats. I hope I score above 260 too. It's my ultimate goal, but like you, will be thrilled with anything above 250. I take the beast in 3 days! Can't wait to finish
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ALL THE BEST.! You will do great.!
 
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jgalt said:
You will almost certainly score between 230-250. There is much less than 1% chance of you failing. The variance in your NBME scores is minuscule.
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I don't know who you are, but if what you are saying turns out to be true for me, I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL TREAT YOU (insert Liam Neeson meme) in a place of your choice. Haha. I apologize for typing in caps, but yeah, your reply made my day! I sit the exam in three days and I have the same scores as the guy you replied to . The '230-250' range really gave me an adrenaline rush to put in all I've got for he next 3 days!! Thanks a tonne, brotha!
 
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Rodeo clown said:
I don't know who you are, but if what you are saying turns out to be true for me, I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL TREAT YOU (insert Liam Neeson meme) in a place of your choice. Haha. I apologize for typing in caps, but yeah, your reply made my day! I sit the exam in three days and I have the same scores as the guy you replied to . The '230-250' range really gave me an adrenaline rush to put in all I've got for he next 3 days!! Thanks a tonne, brotha!
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No problem. Those scores are solid and highly predictive, even more so if you get around the same score on multiple NBMEs. You are very likely to reproduce that score again on the real deal. I slay the beast on Monday so we're in the same boat. Best of luck! (but you wont need it with those scores)

Who is John Galt, anyway?
 
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jgalt said:
No problem. Those scores are solid and highly predictive, even more so if you get around the same score on multiple NBMEs. You are very likely to reproduce that score again on the real deal. I slay the beast on Monday so we're in the same boat. Best of luck! (but you wont need it with those scores)

Who is John Galt, anyway?
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Yeah, I guess the only predictive score is the one that you receive 3 weeks s/p exam.You'll do great! Good luck
 
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Thank you everyone for commenting and relieving some of my worries, I will let you all know how it goes right after the test in 4 days!
 
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Merely said:
Thank you everyone for commenting and relieving some of my worries, I will let you all know how it goes right after the test in 4 days!
Click to expand...

We're taking the exam on the same day and we have the same NBME scores! We are going to do great and hopefully get a few points above our NBME score. Let's do this!!
 
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Event_Horizon said:
Any of you guys who recently took the exam get any questions that were straight inheritance recall questions? I feel like I can't remember even classic inheritance patterns anyone. Gonna kick myself on test day if I can't remember something stupid easy like the hemophilias being X-linked.
Click to expand...

I had the classic probability question that requires you to know the inheritance pattern but otherwise not really. Just review them the day before your test, it will likely be an easy disease like CF
 
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