Monday, March 11, 2019

USMLE step 1 experience by dr.Abbas M. Hassan - score 265


Hey everyone,
This forum motivated me a lot during my preparation for this exam, I used it as a guide and a learning tool. So here I am today sharing my experience as a payback to this amazing forum! 
Studying for this exam is indeed one of the hardest things you will ever do but having the right approach will help and save you a lot of time. Remember to always be excited and have the foresight of making yourself a better doctor.
Also, don't forget to always maintain a healthy lifestyle, as your state of mind is influenced by your health.

𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬:

The order of assessments taken is as follows;
NBME 13: 248
CBSE: 252 (91%)
NBME 15: 250
NBME 16: 256
NBME 17: 261
NBME 19 + UWSA1 (back to back): 264 and 271 respectively. 
UWSA2: 264
NBME 18: 261
Free 120: 89%
Usmle Rx: 84%
Beckers qbank: 81%
Kaplan qbank: I don't exactly remember but in the '80s
Uworld qbank: 89% (Random, timed)
Old NBME's: I did all of them on timed mode, scores ranged from low 240's to high 250's
Actual score: 𝟐𝟔𝟓

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝:

A) Subject-wise:

1-Pathology: Pathoma + Goljan rapid review and audio
2-Pharm: Beckers review + Sketchy pharm
3-Physiology: BRS physiology + Beckers review
4-Microbiology: Microbiology made simple + Sketchy micro
5-Behavioral science: Beckers review+ BRS questions+ 100 ethics cases +UW biostats review+ Randy Neil videos on YouTube. 
6-Biochemistry: Beckers review
7-Anatomy: Beckers review+ BRS anatomy+ 100 concepts
8-Immunology: Beckers review and Abbas basic immunology

B) By resource:

1-First Aid: done 5-6 times, 5 stars, a must-do, 
2-Goljan RR: done 2 times, very time consuming, do only if you have plenty of time or your path background is weak.
3-Pathoma: Must do, almost all you need to know about path.
4-Sketchy: I think this is a gift from God. The best resource out there.
5-Micro made simple: amazing, complement with sketchy for a stunning outcome 
6-BRS physio: done 2 times, a must do for physio.
Qbanks: UW>>Rx>Kaplan>beckers

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:

I am a NON-US IMG from Sudan. Top 1% of class on a mid-tier Caribbean medical school.
My preparation for this test is divided into two phases: 1) Pre-dedicated 2) dedicated study period.

1- Pre-dedicated:

Our program is 4 years, two are basic sciences and 2 are clinical sciences. 
MS1-2: after studying every organ system I use to do UW, Rx and sometimes Kaplan qbank and read the relevant section from the First Aid. I also used pathoma and sketchy at this stage.
After finishing MS2 our school enrolls us in beckers USMLE step1 live courses.
I watched almost all their videos except path and micro, for which I did Pathoma+Goljan and sketchy.
I also did Integrated cases with Dr. Raymon, shout out to this amazing professor he is literally one of the smartest people I met.
After finishing their lectures, I did their Qbank followed by Kaplan Qbank.

2- Dedicated study period:

Total time: 5 weeks.
Focused primarily on doing UW + FA 
On the first week, I used to do 80 questions/day and reading FA thoroughly 
2nd week to 4th week: 120 questions/day of UW + FA 
5th week: I focused on my week areas and did the Basics section of FA again

Note: I also used B&B for my week topics and also referenced my review books.

𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲:

I slept well the day before my test. Woke up at 5 am to pray and meditate.
Packed all of my snacks and beverages the night before.
Arrived at the testing center early but I was allowed to start my test as soon as I arrived.
I had 280 questions on my test. Timing wasn't a problem as I finished every block with 10-15 mins on average. I used the spare time to go over the marked question and to quickly make sure I didn't do any stupid mistakes on the rest of the questions.
The exam is fair, with 80-90% covered in UW + FA. 5-10% was really out of nowhere, in this case, made my best guess and moved on without wasting so much time.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞:

1-In my humble opinion, studying for any exam should be divided into two stages: gathering the information phase and the phase of applying it and integrating it with other info. Linking to my experience I used Beckers and other review books as a way to gather everything I needed. And then followed that by using questions to apply and integrate (read next).

2-Questions are everything. I did more than 12,500 questions at least. The more questions u do the higher your score will be. Also make sure u expose yourself to multiple banks, to see how different test writers think.

3-Don't compare yourself to others. Everyone has their own strengthens and weakness so what might apply for others may not hold true for you. 
Find out your weaknesses as soon as possible and dedicate more time to them. You can do that by looking at the breakdown of your assessments.

4-Perseverance is key! You will have days in which you feel like you are not making any progress but don't give up. Take a break whenever u feel this way, do something outside of medicine and get back to it fresh and ready to kill it.

5-Believe in yourself, don't let anyone tell you that you cant.

Good luck on your test, I hope to see you on the other side soon 😊

I will be happy to answer any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Abbas.


Thursday, March 7, 2019

USMLE step 1 experience by dr.Rachana Borkar‎ - score 241


I got my score today....Happy to share with you all - 241.

I'm an old graduate and started preparing on-off since Feb 2018. I started with kaplan notes for all subjects and read them all till June 2018, in retrospect they were low yield for me.

Then I did Microbiology sketchy...It is excellent tool to correlate and remember.

Followed by Pathoma book and videos....It was average yield for me.

Then it was september and I Subscribed to uworld , did few hundred Q's myself and it was going very slow....so searched for study partner here...Thanks to Moe Al-kasab, It started going smoothly and consistently....I read Uworld and FA 1.5 times with Moe till end of january. Then I took 2 week break for self study and gave exam on 15th feb 2019.

Last 2 weeks I only did my weak areas like Biostatistics, Ethics, CNS, physician task etc. from Uworld and FA.

One day before exam I only did high yield formulae and tables, slept early for 7hr sleep.

On exam day I reached early after having good breakfast and strong coffee. Took 1st &2nd block then 10min break, 3rd & 4th block then 10min break, 5th block and 20min lunch break then 6th block & 10min break then the last block. After exam ended I was numb, It was tougher than the 3 NBME's I took and was expecting about that much or lower score, I'm happy it was not so.

I gave only 3 NBME's 
NBME 15 on 31st dec '18- 225
NBME 17 on end Jan '19- 228
NBME 18 days before exam -225
My scores were average but I couldn't wait longer so gave the exam.


Thursday, February 28, 2019

USMLE step 1 experience by dr.Fawad Khan - score 257


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,