Thread: USMLE STEP 1 STATS: New Format 46 questions July 14- stats

I'm posting this to try and form a more objective review of how the new standard deviation of questions, scores, and cyclic moans will be played out starting to what most believe tom July 14.

I also did some research on few world questions from the offline version of Uworld and to my surprise saw that some of the question's %correct have went up nearly 20% since last updated a few years back. i thought that was interesting. So probably as usual the most accurate will be the online NBMEs separated by proximity to actual test date.


so maybe a standard of info, all anonymously of course with dates to each will help:

Step 1 date and score so as to compare and contrast with

1. NBME practice exams: 1__ 2___ ... 7___
2. U world assessments:
3. Kaplan free 150-
4. Uworld bank-
5. Kaplan Q
6. Usmle Rx
7. anything else im missing

Lets try and keep this quick specific -

if you submit your info add anythign you want additionally to it... what you did, how you did it who cares- vent if you like; but most important is to get a pretty good grasp of whats going on from a students perspective.

don't be afraid if you guys did bad or did good no one cares. if youre insecure about things create a dummy account- lets just try to make everything factual and the least skewed information we can. remember 1-B is the power,.. with power in numbers...


if you are looking for the NB ME offline- most easy to find using go ogle search "NB ME offline download"



thanks guys

Step 1 date and score so as to compare and contrast with
July 22 2010 - 226/97 preparation (not including 5th semester) jan 3rd to test day

1. NBME practice exams: 7 212 4 weeks out with detailed score report higlighteing strengths and weaknesses (its worth the 15 bucks extra .. at least do the last one you take)
2. U world assessments: 1- 211 before starting u world questions ( i was too chicken to do *** 2 only a few weeks out.. confidence is everything)
3. Kaplan free 150-66% about 4 months out
4. Uworld bank- 64% random unused timed- highest 79% towards the end lowest 50% at the beginning (before studying stats)
5. Kaplan Q- momma bought the book med 3 for me but i never cracked it till about 4 mo from the real deal- used as a learning tool but mainly about 65 to 85% correct but after i did that section.. BC anatomy path phys etc
6. Usmle Rx- all offline during 5th semester used as a learning tool- made sure to read the shots of the FA book after the question
7. anything else im missing- wikitest prep- 1 week prior - actually pretty accurate final cumulative was i think 2 or 3 points higher than step1 score
8. MCAT- i did bad on it so i feel there is no correlation-
COMP- first time passer

i would also recommend finding the rapid review programs- they play funny music when you start them up and are subject based- ana micro path and a step 1 prep- they are great actually and good for just leisure questions.. take notes write it out quick then refer back frequently (that way everything is fresh)

for the kaplan Q book- did them read and highlighted important parts from answer section- then typed into word doc a week later- reviewed frequently since they were taken 4 mo back- and was better than just redoing the questions ( less time consuming and more motivational since it sucks to miss the same question twice or be back and forth)

i heard questions questions question from everyone- thats the way to go- but i stopped like a month out after my NBME 7 and went back to the basics of the lower scoring subjects- cardio neuro pharm- repeated the usmle rx questions

i also recommend getting a couple first aids- ( i had the 2009 filled up wtih additional notes- ran out of room when the 2010s came out half priced- bought 2 and cut one- and left one clean for leisure reading would make sure i just read a section straight through)
the cut one about halfway through u world i new some weaknesss - thumbed through it and picked out about 50 or 60 pages that were giving me trouble and were "my own HY of the HYs" i then took all the charts out of the 2010 and had those spiraled as well and spent about 2.5 weeks going through both those- at the same time i bound all the pharm sections just to have as a reference and went through that for about 2 weeks hard core then periodically and then again for 2 days prior and in my car before the real deal.


i also used some select PP and HY notes from the island that my friends and I made for tests which had alot of pictures.
one additional thing that i did ontop of making notes is that i screen shot alot of pictures i found online that were helpful and put them into a folder each one saved as a note ex " picture of entamoeba histolitica'- "trophozoites eats RBCs- anchovy paste flask ulcer migrates to liver lung brain"

o yea i also 2 weeks prior redid all the questions i missed in uworld never got to the ones i marked ( i did these by section and subsection ie checking all sections and then only one sub section like GI- that way i wasnt confusing myself and jumping back and forth)

also iphone shot uw q's of mostly BC and pathways and put onto computer


the day before the exam bc i read everyone couldnt sleep and was groggy the next day.. i limited my caffeine had a lucky bowl of pho and read FA outside in the sun for a few hours which wore me out... i slept like a m f baby


one thing i guess im superstitious... like the last few weeks if i did questions i would do them in tutor mode... and if i didn't know the right answer.. i didn't want to guess and guess wrong then have a bias in my head.. if i didn't know it or had it narrowed down between 2 i would just look at the answer... i didn't want to install a wrong answer in my brain..


i studied to make a 250.. but the last month and a half really didn't care what i got just so long as i didn't have to retake it bc i bombed it... i would probably have to reconsider my goals and future in life... but thats just me

good luck... know your stuff and youll be fine!

the questions i feel are very similar to uworld. there were some that were only and a half lines (maybe 1 or 2 a block) which i was not expecting since they said they had changed it.... i thought i had plenty of time for the real deal only one or two blocks i had to rush the last question.

you guys suck.. no one has continued on this thread?