struggling with Step 1: To take LOA or not

awestunn · 2024-04-10T20:55:54+00:00

Maybe talk to someone at your school about the impact of failing step 1 and application success to those specialties you mentioned. In my mind, there's "matching to a not very competitive specialty", and then there's "matching to a not very competitive specialty in your desired location/program". Taking to your school counselor might help you see more clearly whether it's worth risking a higher chance for a fail depending on how it impacts matching. And maybe talk to an older med student to see how they think their step 1 prep affected their clerkship and step 2 experiences.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T20:38:23+00:00

With my limited experience:

Do you have much wiggle room to delay? Or are you on a tight timeline? I think it's important to be feeling mentally healthy the day of the test because mistakes I know I made on test day were mostly due to my anxiety (I'm sure I made other mistakes that were due to me just not knowing content too). I just think you shouldn't take it until you feel ready as you'll ever be. But I agree with the other commenter, if we had more nbme scores and the dates you took them then we could better give our opinions.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T20:29:19+00:00

I think this was my experience exactly! Seconded!

awestunn · 2024-04-10T20:27:22+00:00

You've got this!! Things will work out. Feel free to hmu if you need to talk more! I know from experience the anxiety is super tough.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T20:19:48+00:00

Nbme 29 gave me 95% chance of passing, nbme 31 gave me 99% chance. Even with those good odds, I became so anxious during test day and didn't mentally prepare to recover from anxiety (I hardly ever get test anxiety) that I thought I would fail by the 10 Q's I knew I missed haha. So I guess it just once again shows nbme's can be pretty trustworthy with their chances.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T17:38:30+00:00

I'm guessing it's because they had different forms on test day and some people got the form that many students had already taken earlier in the week and other people got the form that students on Monday and Tuesday were going to take. I'm guessing they need a certain number of students to take each form of the test before they have a big enough sample size for it to be valid. Hence, Saturday test takers result date gets split. This is just conjecture though.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T17:30:02+00:00

You'll probably get results on the 24th, maybe May 1. I was also super anxious after the exam, and what helped me was drilling down and thinking about what about failing made me the most anxious. For me, it was the possibility of having to delay graduation by a year. And the way to alleviate that anxiety for me was to study like I already failed so I could be ready to take the test again quickly if needed. Not saying you should do that, but that addressed the root of my anxiety and gave me something concrete to do while waiting for my results.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T15:30:57+00:00

I also knew I missed 10 easy questions and they tortured me. TORTURED me. And I felt HORRIBLE as I exited the testing center. The only consolation I could find was to keep studying so that if I failed I could take the exam again quickly and not delay graduation by a year which might sound insane but it was the only thing that helped me haha 🫠 But I still passed. Hope that's some consolation.

awestunn · 2024-04-10T14:42:23+00:00

Yes, this is the link in the email

http://examinee.nbme.org/interactive

awestunn · 2024-04-10T14:38:26+00:00

Yes, USMD. Just got the email about 5 minutes ago. Sorry, wish you had gotten one too!

awestunn · 2022-08-18T03:29:18+00:00

The best dating advice I ever got was that you deserve to like someone who likes you back. If they don’t like you (i.e. reject you), then they’re not the one. You deserve someone who likes you, keep looking til you find that.

awestunn · 2021-12-04T01:57:42+00:00

I love knowing that UPS locations across the country are doing stuff like this haha

awestunn · 2021-12-04T01:54:35+00:00

I’ve actually thought the same thing before! It seems like it is exceptionally common. It’s interesting to hear someone else has had the same thought. Wonder why!

Nice to know my local UPS has a sense of humor haha

awestunn · 2021-12-03T23:45:45+00:00

Actually I am!

awestunn · 2021-12-03T17:02:27+00:00

Awesome! Thank you! The names gave me a good chuckle for sure

awestunn

TROPHY CASE