USMLE Official 2018 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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I've always wanted to start one of these...So here we go! :)

My stats:

M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270
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Gemfibrozil said:
Long time lurker, first time poster. Thanks to everyone for such helpful advice over the past few months.

It’s crazy how different everyone’s experience is on the exam. Some people say UFAP is plenty, others come out saying “what was the point of dedicated”

Taking the exam in 3 days. So nervous because I just wish I could know what to expect.
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Best thing to do is to get enough sleep and go in feeling as calm as possible.
I felt like the exam was very fair. It’s not out to get you. It essentially is a test of what you should have learned in 2 years plus a few fun questions to differentiate between average and above average base of knowledge. (Disclaimer this is just personal opinion of one test taker)

Best of luck!
 
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They’re all caught up with score releases and no more delays, so even if one took their exam Monday Tuesday or Wed they can expect their score to be released on the third Wednesday.

Ex. Permit links should be disappearing throughout today for 7/23 - 7/27 takers who will be receiving their scores this Wed, 8/15
 
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razza1 said:
aiming for 250+ but i already know I made some silly mistakes
and i missed some easy ones
doubt i'll make it up there
any 250+ 'ers feel the same way after your exam ?
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After the exam I knew of 5 or so gimme questions that I missed, another 5-10 that I looked up in the week after and got wrong, and another 5-10 that I wasn’t sure about and took a guess. I ended up with a 267. That was in the range of my practice scores, so I would say trust your practice.
 
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NBME 13: 215
NBME 18: 223
NBME 19: 225
UWSA 2: 234

Real thing: 233

So happy. All that hard work finally paid off
 
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StormRising said:
NBME 13: 215
NBME 18: 223
NBME 19: 225
UWSA 2: 234

Real thing: 233

So happy. All that hard work finally paid off
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Congrats! Mind sharing the resources you used and what you did pre-dedicated/dedicated? Also what did you think of the exam and anything you wish you would have done differently? Thanks!
 
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Can someone comment on the qbank orders you did? I know someone above mentioned they wish they would’ve done Kaplan (too much detail but still good qbank)->Rx(FA)->UW(gold)

Thanks


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mybluedog said:
Can someone comment on the qbank orders you did? I know someone above mentioned they wish they would’ve done Kaplan (too much detail but still good qbank)->Rx(FA)->UW(gold)

Thanks


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Rx for basic sciences -> organ systems did Rx timed system while learning, Kaplan timed system on last week (prep for system test) -> uworld timed random only during dedicated, used Kaplan biostats and behavioral sciences last week to try and hit my weakness :/ biostats was absolutely the reason why I didn’t break 260. It’s fine, I predicted it. It’s certainly not seen heavily on the uworld forms.

Should mention I did IM before step 1 which required me to uworld step 2 IM.

Rx was 80% timed systems first pass
Kaplan was 80% timed system first pass
Uworld was 84% timed random first pass
Only did incorrects for uworld and it was useless. Remembered my wrong and right answer a lot of times and caused undue stress over the question and made me think of things differently due to that, so i opted to not do a second pass uworld.
 
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breezy16 said:
Rx for basic sciences -> organ systems did Rx timed system while learning, Kaplan timed system on last week (prep for system test) -> uworld timed random only during dedicated, used Kaplan biostats and behavioral sciences last week to try and hit my weakness :/ biostats was absolutely the reason why I didn’t break 260. It’s fine, I predicted it. It’s certainly not seen heavily on the uworld forms.

Should mention I did IM before step 1 which required me to uworld step 2 IM.

Rx was 80% timed systems first pass
Kaplan was 80% timed system first pass
Uworld was 84% timed random first pass
Only did incorrects for uworld and it was useless. Remembered my wrong and right answer a lot of times and caused undue stress over the question and made me think of things differently due to that, so i opted to not do a second pass uworld.
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How helpful was UW IM? The questions seem similar to Step 1 questions haha
 
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Step2myLou said:
How helpful was UW IM? The questions seem similar to Step 1 questions haha
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I mean there’s a lot of next step questions that are helpful for day to day in IM, and if for some odd reason STEP1 decides to ask like (this is a random thing I’m pulling from my head) oh you have a kid with psvt without WPW and they’re hemodynamically unstable what’s the next best step I would gander most preclinical students would choose adenosine rather than direct cardioversion. So in that way it’s helpful because now you know why something is first line versus second line.

I feel like a lot of resources like sketchy or bb give you a list of drugs or procedures that are appropriate, but never nail down what’s supposed to be given first line.
 
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still waiting on my scores took the exam on 8/3 been 13 days, scheduling permit link is still there
when did you guys take your exam? the ones that got scores out yesterday?
 
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guess i'm one of the only ones expecting scores on 8/22,
feels like a lone wolf idk if thats a good thing or a bad thing lol
 
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breezy16 said:
I mean there’s a lot of next step questions that are helpful for day to day in IM, and if for some odd reason STEP1 decides to ask like (this is a random thing I’m pulling from my head) oh you have a kid with psvt without WPW and they’re hemodynamically unstable what’s the next best step I would gander most preclinical students would choose adenosine rather than direct cardioversion. So in that way it’s helpful because now you know why something is first line versus second line.

I feel like a lot of resources like sketchy or bb give you a list of drugs or procedures that are appropriate, but never nail down what’s supposed to be given first line.
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Was there a lot of next step questions on your Step 1 exam? I was kinda leaning towards whether doing UW IM was helpful for your step 1 exam in particular as in the length of the questions and presentations? One of my buddies did UW IM for step 1 and he said it was really helpful. Thank you!!
 
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Step2myLou said:
Was there a lot of next step questions on your Step 1 exam? I was kinda leaning towards whether doing UW IM was helpful for your step 1 exam in particular as in the length of the questions and presentations? One of my buddies did UW IM for step 1 and he said it was really helpful. Thank you!!
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Yeah it was definitely helpful for those reasons and then-some (learning the whole picture rather than memorizing the pieces of pictures) It really taught me what pertinent positives and negatives meant in terms of eliminating answer choices or choosing them.
Like i felt like IM really packaged everything up in preclinical into a bow and made it into a clear picture rather than this amorphous blob of random presentations.

re Razza - my permit disappeared Sunday
 
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breezy16 said:
Yeah it was definitely helpful for those reasons and then-some (learning the whole picture rather than memorizing the pieces of pictures) It really taught me what pertinent positives and negatives meant in terms of eliminating answer choices or choosing them.
Like i felt like IM really packaged everything up in preclinical into a bow and made it into a clear picture rather than this amorphous blob of random presentations.

re Razza - my permit disappeared Sunday
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Would you say that its better to spend the time doing UW IM rather than another qbank like Kaplan?
 
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Step2myLou said:
Would you say that its better to spend the time doing UW IM rather than another qbank like Kaplan?
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Just stick to ufap it is all U need for 260 plus. Everybody does ufap but most underestimate the required time commitment to actually memorize it all.

And the nbmes are important also.

Less is more
 
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Hey guys I have no idea where my step score will fall since they’ve been kinda all over. Need some help. These are my practice scores:

NBME 13- 232
UWSA1- 255
NBME 19- 234
NBME 18- 242
UWSA2- 249

Was UWSA2 predictive for most people?
 
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GimmeTheScalpel said:
Hey guys I have no idea where my step score will fall since they’ve been kinda all over. Need some help. These are my practice scores:

NBME 13- 232
UWSA1- 255
NBME 19- 234
NBME 18- 242
UWSA2- 249

Was UWSA2 predictive for most people?
Click to expand...

What score are you aiming for? It seems like you’re solidly in the 245-255 range, I bet you crack 250.
 
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Step2myLou said:
Congrats! Mind sharing the resources you used and what you did pre-dedicated/dedicated? Also what did you think of the exam and anything you wish you would have done differently? Thanks!
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Pre-dedicated: I started doing COMBANK and UWORLD simultaneously beginning in January. I annotated First Aid. After COMBANK was completed, I moved on to Kaplan. I finished Kaplan and UWORLD before my dedicated. Read a chapter of FA per week though I did not do this very consistently.

I also made Sketchy like drawings of my own (see below) for pathology and pharmacology each of which took me about 5-10 minutes to make. For pathology related sketches, I used Pathoma and FA. For pharm, I used FA. I ended up making over 400 of these sketches.

I didn't like Sketchy pathology and pharm except for antimicrobials. I found the rest too convoluted.

Dedicated (~3 weeks): UWORLD 2nd pass. Did about 75% of the qbank. Read a chapter of FA every 2 days. Focus on areas of weaknesses



7J2zUx8
 
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StormRising said:
Pre-dedicated: I started doing COMBANK and UWORLD simultaneously beginning in January. I annotated First Aid. After COMBANK was completed, I moved on to Kaplan. I finished Kaplan and UWORLD before my dedicated. Read a chapter of FA per week though I did not do this very consistently.

I also made Sketchy like drawings of my own (see below) for pathology and pharmacology each of which took me about 5-10 minutes to make. For pathology related sketches, I used Pathoma and FA. For pharm, I used FA. I ended up making over 400 of these sketches.

I didn't like Sketchy pathology and pharm except for antimicrobials. I found the rest too convoluted.

Dedicated (~3 weeks): UWORLD 2nd pass. Did about 75% of the qbank. Read a chapter of FA every 2 days. Focus on areas of weaknesses



7J2zUx8
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Thank you for that!! What did you think of Kaplan qbank? I am having trouble deciding between that or USMLE Rx.
 
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Step2myLou said:
Thank you for that!! What did you think of Kaplan qbank? I am having trouble deciding between that or USMLE Rx.
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I think it's definitely worth doing if you have the time. I think Kaplan is closer to what NBMEs are than UWORLD in terms of details asked and question style.
 
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Huggy said:
I wouldn't say that you are solidly in the 245-255 range. It is definitely possible though.

I like to think of using both the NBME averages and UWSA2 as the best predictor of your score. Your score should fall somewhere between the two (236-249).

I think breaking 240 is a nice and reasonable goal!
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Is UWSA 1 too high of a predictor? Figured by 255 was an outlier
 
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Huggy said:
I don’t think I’ve seen someone score above or at their UWSA1 score (maybe a few random posters have on here). That also depends on how far out you took it from exam day. Most of the time it overpredicts.
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I got the same as my uwsa1 but took it like 5 months before usmle lol
So yeah usually over predicts.
Was 4 higher than my UWSA2
12 higher than nbme 18
2 higher than nbme 17
8 higher than nbme 16

If people don’t get test anxiety UWSA usually closest but bank on NBME for safety
 
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alprazoslam said:
yeah the nbmes esp when combined are good for making a fail safe. look at the report on nbmes it states what most people score on real deal vs nbmes and usually it’s 0-10 pnts higher on real deal. IE my nbme average was 266. real deal was 273. so like slightly higher. but some do score at and below probably likely due to test anxiety. i went into it sorta not anxious since i just wanna do IM. i would have been more stressed had PRS or derm been on my list
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:wideyed::wideyed:
 
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alprazoslam said:
yeah the nbmes esp when combined are good for making a fail safe. look at the report on nbmes it states what most people score on real deal vs nbmes and usually it’s 0-10 pnts higher on real deal. IE my nbme average was 266. real deal was 273. so like slightly higher. but some do score at and below probably likely due to test anxiety. i went into it sorta not anxious since i just wanna do IM. i would have been more stressed had PRS or derm been on my list
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Insane score. When did you take your exam? And would you mind providing your practice scores and explaining how you studied, both during preclinicals and during dedicated? Roughly how many questions do you think you got wrong?
 
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GimmeTheScalpel said:
Hey guys I have no idea where my step score will fall since they’ve been kinda all over. Need some help. These are my practice scores:

NBME 13- 232
UWSA1- 255
NBME 19- 234
NBME 18- 242
UWSA2- 249

Was UWSA2 predictive for most people?
Click to expand...

when did you take the exam?
 
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alprazoslam said:
NBME 16-265
NBME 17- 271
NBME 18-261
UWSA1- 273 (4-5 months out)
UWSA2- 269
all but UWSA1 were <7 days to test

went through first aid, sketchy micro, pharm, some path during classes. did Uworld and first aid during dedicated. didn't really do pathoma.

did some combank and savarase for OMM for those who have to waste time on that stuff to (DO world)


Just gotta do well in class and try to remember as much from first aid, uworld, sketchy (pathoma too i just didn't use it)

everybody uses these resources but very few have them all fully memorized. There were things in first aid i just could not remember so one would be in good shape having FA memorized word for word. I did not use zanki, anki, or any flashcards besides just putting charts into flashcards in uworld and their note taking software.

There are no tricks, just memorizing UFAPs and getting good/quick at answering questions and not wearing down on exam day.

I have no idea how many i got wrong, i usually mark half the test and had plenty of time to review. usually was done besides review at 45 minute mark minus 1-2 I had no idea what they were asking that i saved till last.
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are you saying that UFAP (I am omitting Sketchy because you do too, although you say you used it), if mastered, would give you a 270+? thanks and congratulations!
 
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BurnedOut said:
are you saying that UFAP (I am omitting Sketchy because you do too, although you say you used it), if mastered, would give you a 270+? thanks and congratulations!
Click to expand...

depends on good at test taking the person is, most of the harder questions were things not in those resources but the other 4 answer choices were in UFAPS, so you had to know all the wrongs to get the sort of most right answer. They have a weird way of asking things that makes it really hard to look up after the test IE theoretical stuff and charts and assumptions (sort of like MCAT). But the rest of the test was pure regurgitation.

I dont think anybody is guaranteed a 270, part of my test was luck as I felt it tested most my strong points. I doubt any advice I give is any better than somebody who made a 265 or even 260, have to remember these tests have a standard error ( of 6) i think and they don't say it but I believe the error grows as as you reach the extremes (<180 >260). So really anything above a 260ish is probably a lot of for say luck and chance (which is fine a 260 is an excellent score)

I would say mastering UFAPS should give anybody a 250, probably a 260, maybe a 270, which in all honesty is good enough for any specialty. One has to ask themselves after they go through UFAPS - "Do I really understand all the concepts and have it all memorized?"

how much difference is a 270ish vs 250 when applying to residencies? probably not a lot. At least not to me since I go to a DO school and I'd be ghosted from any top ranked program anyway
 
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alprazoslam said:
depends on good at test taking the person is, most of the harder questions were things not in those resources but the other 4 answer choices were in UFAPS, so you had to know all the wrongs to get the sort of most right answer. They have a weird way of asking things that makes it really hard to look up after the test IE theoretical stuff and charts and assumptions (sort of like MCAT). But the rest of the test was pure regurgitation.

I dont think anybody is guaranteed a 270, part of my test was luck as I felt it tested most my strong points. I doubt any advice I give is any better than somebody who made a 265 or even 260, have to remember these tests have a standard error ( of 6) i think and they don't say it but I believe the error grows as as you reach the extremes (<180 >260). So really anything above a 260ish is probably a lot of for say luck and chance (which is fine a 260 is an excellent score)

I would say mastering UFAPS should give anybody a 250, probably a 260, maybe a 270, which in all honesty is good enough for any specialty. One has to ask themselves after they go through UFAPS - "Do I really understand all the concepts and have it all memorized?"

how much difference is a 270ish vs 250 when applying to residencies? probably not a lot. At least not to me since I go to a DO school and I'd be ghosted from any top ranked program anyway
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hey thanks for the answer.
from what i have seen you would have a certain advantage over a 250 ;)

in terms of how competitive you are with MD graduates, i think your situation being very special, your step 2 score and research and your interview skills all are going to matter and especially if step 2 goes well, you should not exclude any residency.
 
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fartmanjoe said:
Is your permit link still there? I took mines on Aug 2nd and its still there. Its freaking me out a little bit.
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permit link still there took the exam aug 3rd
yea i have no idea if we're getting our scores this wednesday

Application error: Permit is not available. The candidate may have sat for the exam or the registration is no longer active.
 
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