DISCLAIMER: This is a long post. Sorry, but I need to shout to the void after taking step 1 today.
I do think I make an interesting point though, so if you wanna scroll down and skip my personal experience I bolded it. You're welcome.
So........I took step today, I am currently SHOOOKK...like wtf just happened?
Please someone tell me they felt this way too. Please please please. For my sanity.
I felt like everyone has been saying that the actual exam questions are just like uWorld vignettes or longer, but my exam had soooooo many two or three sentence questions. I was seriously confused, and these questions were super straightforward and tested very random/not high yield facts, or gave just a picture and a question (no other helpful information). So rather than having a vignette with multiple pieces of info to clue you in, it was either do you know this random gene (even though one of the other answers is the exact same letters/numbers with one number different...like really? are you kidding me? thanks usmle.) or you are just out shit out of luck because there are no other hints in the question.
Did anyone have a similar experience today or in the last few weeks?
Full Disclosure: While I was not the most dedicated studier, I feel like the actual exam was nothing like I have seen or expected. For the most part, all the practice questions/tests I did to study were either I felt very confident about my answer or I had no clue bc I was lacking some random knowledge/fact. But this test today.....I feel like there were very few questions that I had no clue, but also way fewer questions that I knew for sure. For a majority of the questions, I knew the disease or physiology/pathology really well, but the answer choices were a random factoid or had really similar choices so I ended up narrowing it down to two options and making an educated guess. What is really frustrating is that it when I narrowed things down I knew for sure it wasn't any answer I crossed out, like no doubt. It was just two answers that were super similar a lot of the time.
AHHHHHHHHHH. OKAY, THE PANIC IS SETTING IN
Now I am very concerned about my score, because I feel like I had the knowledge base to score really well, but that there is a good chance my score wont be reflective of that.
I almost would rather have come out of the test knowing I knew 50% of the questions cold and had absolutely no clue on 50% but hope for the best on the second 50%. But instead I feel like I definitely got at least 30% right for sure, I had no clue and/or ran out of time and had to put a a random answer on 10% (probably less), but the other 60% were questions I have a 50/50 chance of getting right. And relying on chance for that large of a percentage is TERRIFYING. So if I guessed correctly on a majority of that 60% my score will be pretty high, but if I guessed incorrectly on most then my score will be lower than any of my predictions.
It is just a shitty feeling because like I said, I felt like I had a really good understanding of most every topic on the test and couldve explained any of the diseases/pathways/etc.. tested, but the answer choices were super nit-picky-specific and tested parts of the disease/pathology that are just random and don't play a major role in the presentation/mechanism/treatment/etc... of the condition. But you don't get points for knowing why every other answer is wrong but choosing the wrong of two.....don't you just love standardized tests? Yeah, me too.
Maybe I am just venting to the void and its my fault? Maybe I approached studying the wrong way, but I focused heavily on biochem and understanding the cellular/molecular/physiologic/pathophysiologic mechanisms and core principles to understand the presentation and treatments of disease. What is frustration is that I felt like how I studied was the reason for my success on Uworld questions. FYI I still dont think I would have been able to narrow down so many questions to two answers if I hadnt had this method of studying. So maybe this exam has gotten so impossible that I shouldve known all that and the random facts to do well. But, just to reiterate my frustration one more time, I started studying doing anki which I decided was super fact based and lacked the understanding behind the facts which were the things that were actually tested. So I changed my study method and found I was more successful at answering Uworld and NBME questions than before and compared to my friends who did a mix of anki and other things but never really synthesized the core principles and how they relate to all diseases. because all threads and even the USMLE itself has stated that the test should test application of core principles and reasoning, so moving away from buzzwords/random things the past few years. My bad for trying to listen to the administration. Geez.
But another thing worth mentioning: there were almost no buzzwords on my exam. So for those who rely on those in vignette questions, prepare yourself. Also, there were multiple microbes, gene sequences, biostatistics figures/concepts that were not covered in sketchy micro/pathoma/FA(don't quote me bc theres a ton of stuff in FA, but if they were in there they weren't explained or linked to the topic being questioned. or they weren't in zanki or other decks)
OK here it is, just like I promised:
THE MAIN POINT OF THIS POST:
My exam was soooo different from the experience of all of my friends who took step before the end of april or even those who took it before the new content release. They all talked about how there were lots of questions that were out of left field but that they were more than likely experimental. To be honest, I am worried there were barely any experimental questions on my exam. (Would love to hear thoughts from others who tested today!! )
This brings me to my fear. If any of you have been trolling this reddit page, its pretty mind blowing the sheer number of people who tested in the last month and received their scores back and scored MARGINALLY lower on the actual exam than their predicted scores. I'm not talking a few points, I would say the average of these posts I've seen is people who were scoring consistently in the 240s+ prior to step, and on test day scored in the 200-220s. Is it just me or IS THIS NOT MIND BLOWING and DISTURBING at the same time.
Some of my ideas as I sit here with my mind racing: Is the USMLE including less experimental questions in the new question pool, which is making scores lower when compared to scores of the previous months? Since score reporting is being delayed, are the curves not going to be as generous because there is a shift in question style and content?
If anyone has thoughts on this I would love to hear them!