Hi friends,
I am an IMG from India and I wanted to share my Step 1- 240 experience in this forum and give back to the community which has helped me.
I was in the second batch of my medical college and hence did not have much guidance from within my college. However, I was fortunate to have the guidance from other people who I got acquainted during my preparation.
Preparation time: 3 months in summer 2018 and 1 month during the winter break.
Materials used: God's grace> Self confidence> Hard work> Smart work> FA> UWORLD> First Aid Express videos> DIT videos>UWorld SA> NBME
Goal: I wanted to get into Anesthesia program so my goal was to get something above a 240.
Graduation year: 2016
Note: I had to break my prep between summer and winter breaks since I am in a masters program.
In Summer 2018-
First Pass FA with DIT videos (May-June 2018):
I first started with First Aid, however, I soon realized that it would make more sense for me to go through the book as I watch the videos since I found FA to be concentrated revision material and not for the purpose of understanding.
Therefore, I started watching the DIT videos and annotating my FA book simultaneously if there was something that was not clear for me in the book. Annotating was super useful coz it helped me have everything in one place. I could not have finished my First pass of FA without DIT!
NBME 18: 203
Uworld 2 times (July 2018):
I did U world completely twice. The first time I went through every single answer, annotated it in my FA meticulously using post its and different color pens. I had the idea of highlighting words which were the keys to answering U world question. I highly recommend highlighting them with a particular color sketch that would not be used for other purposes. I will tell you why soon!
The second round of Uworld I completed by just going through the educational objective. This helped me reinforce my memory of the Uworld questions.
NBME 19: 215
Second pass FA along with USMLERx videos(December 2018- Jan 2019):
Firstly, these videos are great! They take you through the pages of FA highlighting the important points to retain. Also
I highly recommend this method of studying along with videos because it lets u focus and also keeps the pace.
UWSA 2: 241
Revision: last 2 days only! ( Trust me- u do not want to do this-Definitely take more time for revision!)
I was able to do this in 2 days ONLY because I had highlighted the high yield points in U world questions using a particular type of highlighter. I had only enough time to skim through those highlighted points and reinforce my memory.
The night before the exam- I thought I was pretty confident about my exam, however, that night for some unknown reason I could sleep for only 2 hours! It was so unexpected for that to happen to me (who usually catches a good 8 hours of sleep)- especially on a night when it was extremely important for me to catch a good sleep.
So, I strongly suggest that you all go to bed early on the day of the exam and carry a fearless attitude right from the beginning of the exam preparation so that your subconscious lets you sleep on the night before the exam!
Exam day: Took some light lunch and sugary drinks.
First session- 2 blocks- was great!
Snack break
Second session-3 blocks- was not up to expectations as I was feeling a little drowsy by the third block.
Lunch break
Third session-2 blocks- don't remember how this went, all I remember is sitting on that chair and smiling to myself thinking of how it is all going to end soon!
3 weeks later: Score: 240
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