Step 1 experience-266
Got my score finally!! Thanks to the kind people in this group for all their help! I am sharing my experience hoping that it will be helpful to many, as many others' experiences were helpful to me. Plz ask the questions in the comment section and try to refrain from the urge to dm me! God bless u all!!
I started my USMLE journey pretty much in the dark, with no one there to offer 1st hand advice. I learned most of the stuffs by reading experiences of other people from various forums. So, now that I am on the other side of ‘THE GREAT STEP1 EXAM’, I am sharing my experience hoping it will be helpful for many who are now in a position where I was few years back.
Let me start by offering my sincerest thanks to everyone who made this journey possible for me. Thank you gods, my family, friends esp my study partners, my coworkers. Especial thanks to my senior colleagues and the kind genius doctors of USMLE FORUMS and facebook usmle groups from whom I learnt so so much and got so much of guidance. Thank you all!!
This is how my step 1 journey went:
⏩ Total duration: 2 and half years
✔Just surface reading: 1year (during my internship-Only Goljan)
✔A bit serious study for 1 year
✔Dedicated study for next 5 months
✔Closed room study for 1 month
⏩ Materials used:
✔FA (2018): 6-7 times
✔UW offline once, online once, marked questions twice
✔Kaplan videos once ( except pathology, biostat, microbiology)
✔Kaplan lecture notes (anat-4, bchem-5, behavioral&biostat-3, microbio-2, pharma-5, physio-4 times)
✔Pathoma twice
✔Sketchy (for microbio and only few topics of pharma) : many times
✔All NBMEs (1to19): offline
✔UWSA 1 and 2: online
✔BRS behavioral, Highyield anatomy: only some portion
✔Goljan pathology twice
✔Anatomy shelf notes thrice
✔Ethics: 100 cases, Khan’s cases, usmledirty from youtube
✔Biostat: Randy neil from youtube, uwstep2 offline, Uworld biostat review
✔Heart sounds: Medzcool from youtube, litmann website and where ever else I found them
✔UsmleRx qbank: offline once
✔Boards and beyond videos once
✔A lot of youtube, google and NCBI for additional stuffs
✔My personal notes
⏩ How I rate the resources I used:
✔FA: the priceless resource for step1. Do it as many times as you can. Make it your annotation hub. But don’t make the annotations way too heavy either coz that’s gonna slow you down a lot while revising.
✔UW: I did it offline once and then online. My advice is that its better to do online from the very beginning coz when you do offline first, then when you start doing it online, you feel like most of the questions are new.
✔Kaplan videos: once is enough
✔Kaplan lecture notes: I loved biochem and pharmacology. Also anat has a lot more info than fa. I am more of a book guy rather than a video guy. So I repeated lecture notes rather than Kaplan videos.
✔Pathoma: A golden resource for early stages. Annote everything extra in fa and leave it
✔Sketchy: This was as important for me as fa and uw. Microbio is really really good. Makes the memorization so so effective. A must do in my opinion.
✔Bnb videos: to the point, short and simply awesome. Do it if you have time. Helps to clear many concepts
✔Goljan: do it if you have time
✔Usmlerx question bank: can be used to figure out hidden info in FA. Do it if you have time
✔NBME: can be used mainly for building stamina and to keep in track your progress rather than as a learning tool. Do in the timed mode
✔Other resources mentioned above: do if you have time and as per your requirement ie to clarify your doubts and strengthen weak areas.
✔UWSA: found them really really tough. Advise to do them both
✔USMLE preparation forum, facebook group: This was one of the most important resource for me. I learned so much in these forums. Especially to confirm the answers of nbmes.
⏩Assessments (in the order I took them; number of mistakes in the parenthesis; Did all the nbmes by setting timer for 1hr10 min):
✔NBME 6 :7 months back (forgot), 2:6months back(forgot)
✔1(41) and 3(27) on same day- 5months back
✔4(21) and 5(33) on same day- 4months back
✔7(21)-3 months back
✔11 (23)and 12 (25) on same day- 3months back
✔13(22) and 15(26) on same day- 2months back
✔UWSA1: 264- 40 days back
✔NBME 17(10)-35 days back
✔NBME 19 (15)- 25 days back
✔UWSA2: 260-22 days back
✔NBME 16(17) and 18 (17)-18 days back
✔Free 120 (89%)- 15 days back
✔Real exam:266
⏩ Details:
✔1st 1 year:
I started my step 1 preparation while I was an intern in my medical college. During 1 year of internship, amongst the busy duty hours and the temptation of having fun with my friends during the free time, I managed to go through Goljan once and that’s all I did during my internship. I went through the vast text of goljan, skimming though the text and highlighting important information. I had no one to provide proper guidance then and most of my understanding of USMLE was derived from google.
✔Next 1 year:
After completing internship I started working in a rural health centre where I met two of my senior colleagues who were also preparing for step1 and all of a sudden, the path didn’t seem impossible. But then there were a lot of other struggles like managing study time along side the 24 hours duty, attending and providing trainings, running the health centre as its head, managing internet access in a rural area and so on.
As I started working, I also started with Kaplan lecture notes and videos. The progress was slow and frustrating at times but it was over in a few months after which I moved on to pathoma and then the holy bible FIRST AID , which was a nightmare at first but got easier during revisions.
After 1st read of FA, I moved on to offline UW which was no less a nightmare than FA itself.
✔Last 6months:
Did FA, online UW,BnB videos, Kaplan lecture notes ,NBMEs, Uwsa, revised Goljan once again, used google, youtube and ncbi a lot to clarify my doubts.
While doing nbmes, I did two nbmes on the same day to try to build up my stamina and it paid off well. On the exam day, by the end, I was still full of stamina. I also did 8 blocks a day while doing online uworld.
I solved nbmes regularly and the progress was satisfactory and so were uwsas.
⏩Weaknesses and their solutions:
✔Towards the beginning my main weakness was pharmacology and biochem: going through fa and Kaplan lecture notes again and again and making plenty plenty of mnemonics.
✔Then anatomy seemed to drop my points: Kaplan lecture notes, anatomy shelfnotes, netter atlas for gross pictures, videos from you tube for neuroanatomy
✔Biostat: uw biostat review, step2 uw biostat, randyneil youtube
✔Microbio: sketchy and fa were more than enough
✔Towards the end, ethics and biochem( the secondary messenger system and blots and all) were my major weaknesses. So I revised all the ethics resources I had used and for blots and secondary messenger systems, I used you tube videos.
⏩ Exam day:
Managed to get roughly 6hours of sleep on the previous night, thankfully. Took a light breakfast. Arrived at the exam center way ahead of time. Went through the tutorial quickly ( is same as that of free120) and before I knew it the real exam question was appearing on the screen infront of me. My heartbeat soared and it remained so until the end of 2nd block. Then after I remained relatively calm. Took a break after each block.
Completed each block with 15 to 20 min remaining and was able to review marked questions. Majority of the questions were simple and straightforward but as with everyone, there were 4-5 confusing questions in each block. With some I couldnt figure out what the question was trying to ask while with others ,the questions were simple but two of the options were confusing. I got only one calculation question. Rest of the questions from biostat were theoretical type. Heart sounds were pretty clear and the diagnosis was quite obvious from the cv itself. ECGs were pretty straightforward as well.
Time was more than adequate for me and fatigue was not a problem either. This I credit to doing all nbmes and uw blocks in timed mode and 8 blocks in a single day.
Post exam days were stressful as I had so many doubtful questions and I couldn’t find the answers anywhere. I knew I had made 2-3 silly mistakes and those kept on haunting me. But the end result was good and I feel so grateful for that. My aim was to obtain as high a score as possible. When the score finally came, I wasn’t super psyched but I was psyched nevertheless and I had no complaints either. Mostly, I was relieved that it was over. Looking forward to crush CK now.
⏩ Main points:
✔First and foremost, get a study partner. Someone to discuss the stuffs with, to motivate one another and to stay on track. USMLE is a frustrating, depressing, tough long long journey and its very difficult to go through it alone.
✔Trust your score. Data rarely lie.
✔Always do nbme on timed mode. You don’t need to do all. 11 and onwards will suffice but if you have time, its best to do all nbmes.
✔Revise FA as many times as you can
✔Use the facebook groups and forums
✔You will have to sacrifice a lot during the journey. Don’t hesitate to do so. A supportive family and close friends will ease your pain during the journey.
✔Keep on revising FA at least upto 3-4 days before exam
✔Preparing for step1 while holding a full time job is really tough and yet there are many
who make this possible! Managing time to study and getting approval for the leave is really hard and consumes alot of your time and energy. Kudos to all those doctors who are preparing for step1 while holding a full time job! Dont give up!! You arenot alone. I did it, many more before me did it and so can you!
✔Many many a times during your preparation, you will feel like giving up; you’ll start questioning if you are the dumbest person in the whole wide world and if all this is worth it. Many people will make you feel like giving up. But always keep the end result in sight and remember that everyone feels the same. Keep your family and dear friends close and give your best and it will soon be over.
ALL THE BEST!!!! God bless you all.
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