Usmle step 1 experience
Step 1 score-237
I know its not a 250 or an outstanding score but i just wanted to share my experience with everyone, coz it might help some one.
Preparation time - 1 year 2 months
Resources used- First aid & uworld (main)
Becker, rx and kaplan qbank (just for practise)
Nbme 7- 210(8 months back)
Nbme 13- 200 (9 months back)
Nbme 15- 221 (7 months ago)
Nbme 16- 219 (6 months ago)
Nbme 12- 228(4 months ago)
Nbme 11- 231 (3 months ago)
Nbme 17- 242 (1.5 months ago)
Nbme 18- 246 (1 month back)
Nbme 19- 246 (1 month back)
Uwsa 1- 251 (3 weeks ago)
Uwsa 2- 245 (3 weeks ago)
Free 120- 75% (3weeks ago)
I am an average student who used to have fun during med school and just used to study for exams. I started off with first aid but i wasnt able to understand the core concepts. Then i started using rx videos and dit while reading first aid, and that made me understand the concepts upto 70%. After each chapter in first aid i would do the respective uworld topics. My first pass of uworld was 58%.
I was doing well initially and there was increase in my marks till i reached 220 where it started getting stagnant. Then i started analyzing my nbmes and started figuring out why i was getting questions wrong. I would categorize the wrong questions into didnt know, stuck between 2 options and careless mistakes. And the most questions was because i was careless and i wouldnt read the question properly, and there would be some twist in the last line of the question. So i highly advise to read the last line and the options and then read the whole vignette. So then i started doing other qbanks like rx, kaplan and becker on timed mode, so that i dont make careless mistakes. The purpose of these qbanks was not to get extra info but to reduce the careless mistakes that i was making because i was making approximately 12-15 careless mistakes in each exam. When i did these qbank i did it in timed mode, and when i went through the answers i wouldnt bother if its a completely new concept that fa and uworld hasnt mentioned.
Final month
Finished off my remaining nbmes which are 18 and 19. I did uwsa 1 & 2 together to simulate the actual test which is highly recommended. I revised fa 2 more times and noted down the points which i was forgetting on a note book so that i could revise the day before the exam
Advice:
Each persons strategy is different. I feel kaplan is very low yield and not required. FA and uworld is very very high yield. Try to pull out the hidden info in fa and try to understand why each concept given is fa rather than memorizing. After each nbme understand why the answer is wrong, and why the right answer is the right one because those concepts are being asked in the actual exam. During the exam it is advisable you skip the tutorial, so that you can save 15 minutes. You can watch the tutorial on the usmle site the day before the exam. Just do your best and leave the rest to god!!
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