date of exam: 5 dec 2018,
Score: 257
total duration of prep : 7 months approx
materials used: Uworld, Kaplan 2014, pathoma
i had watched pathoma, kaplan videos 2014(except pharma and pathology) during undergraduate years and thus
i started my preparation after purchasing online uworld in April 2018 and would do it off and on for about 4-5 hours daily and sometimes i would have to skip days because of Job schedule. i would read first aid alongwith uworld.
I would do NBMEs along with it and got dishearted after doing offline NBME 7 , in which i did 39 mistakes.
During the mid of preparation i skipped two weeks because of exhaustion and the whole endeavor seemed fruitless and i was thinking of quitting. but later on i just starts again in September ande this time with greater determination. i kept on doing NBMES the scores of which i would share below and it seemed like my score was stuck in between the range of 230-240.
After the uworld subscription expired i booked the date and had no MCQs pool to solve , thus i downloaded and started doing USMLE rx 2017 offline , after finishing Uworld , just to feel more productive and doing something useful. This Qbank was way too easy and had strightforward questions in comparison to Uworld where the questions were twisted and one had to integrate many disciplines in order to arrive at the correct answer.
EXAM DAY:
Now something about the real exam, the real exam had the same format as that of Uworld, but the questions were way too confusing and one had to think thorougly to arrive at the correct answer. the picture quality of histology images and graphs was poor and one couldnt decipher them easily. it had heart sounds and ECGs which needed proper understanding of ECGs and heart sounds as these questions were not doable just from the provided question stem only.
Overall in every block there would be 5-10 questions which wouldnt make any sense at all. the rest required good concepts and were doable.
EXAM ANXIETY: (Greatest factor that can mar your score)
Exam day anxiety is the greatest factor that determines your score, the more you fear and are anxious the greater the chances are to do silly and avoidable mistakes, one has to be confident and sure about his knowledge while solving questions. i had 2 juniors along with me and we took the test on the same day and they were well prepared but couldn't achieve their desired target score because of severe anxiety and lack of restful sleep..... And the main factor that my real score came way above my NBMES score is lack of exam anxiety and leaving it to the Luck. i rarely changed my answers while solving questions and would move on to the next block as soon as i would finish marking the answers and giving a quick review. thus i ended up finishing the exam 2 hours before the allotted time.....and my anxiety phase started after finishing the exam as i thought i should have taken more time while solving questions, any how this anxiety kept on bugging me until i got the result on 2nd jan, 2019
I did all of the following NBMEs Offline and calculated the score based upon the formula which is 1.34 * correct answers
NBME 13: 236
NBME 15: 234
NBME 17: 237
NBME 18: 242
NBME 19: 237
UWSA 1: 254
UWSA 2: 254
UW first pass percentage : 79.1%
Step1 Score: 257
hope this helps, Best of Luck,
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