Here goes another boring write up.
Never was the best at standardized testing. I was always good at practice exams! So, this scared me going into step1
For example, for the MCAT, I was scoring in the mid to upper 5 teens and ended up below a 510.
I have always choked in sports and academics during the “Big Show”
I’m not going to tell the sport I played in college because that would lower my confidentiality significantly… but I was always beating nationally-ranked opponents not to even qualify for nationals.
This all played into my mental game and self-doubt. From my practice scores, I knew I had the ability but was always doubting myself
I started dedicated wanting to score between a 245-250.
I never did Anki through school because I didn’t know about it. I found it later right after Christmas and started using it. I couldn’t use Zanki or LY due to length so I started using Soze, Duke, Pepper decks
Pre-dedicated, I used BnB along with the class. Probably watched 70% of it during that time. I also used Amboss with class and had about half of the questions completed. I was top quartile in my class with around a 93 cumulative average for a background in pre-dedicated knowledge.
In January, I ditched class and only step studied because I thought I was taking the thing in May… LOL ended up with 3 cancelations… Took mine on June 14th
I watched all of the sketchy pharm, micro, and pathoma.
I used the Anki decks described above with them. I never matured any of them but I kept up decently.
I tried “reading” first aid but decided I hated it so didn’t really use FA much 😱😱
After my cancellations, I was pretty depressed and only studied about 4-5 hours a day. Usually doing 1 UW block and some Anki reviews.
Here are my assessments in order
Amboss 225
NBME 18 234
UWSA1 258
NBME 13 240
NBME 15 240
NBME 16 244
NBME 19 240
NBME 22 248
NBME 23 250
NBME 24 255
UWSA2 256
Free 120 92%
UW 1st pass 75%
UW 2nd pass 86%
Real thing 253
Coming out of the exam I counted 15 questions I knew I changed from correct to incorrect. I also had to guess on some.
I figured I scored in the upper 220s to lower 230s so I was happy when I saw my score.
I was in between patients on rotations when I opened my score report… Could have been bad to cry in front of my attending and a patient lol…
After I found out my score, I started regretting changing those answers on those easy lay-up questions….. Probably cost me a 260 but I’m NOT going to complain about a 250.
Overall, I’m happy I finally didn’t choke in the end and ended with a respectable score
I hope this write up helps!!