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USMLE step 1 Experience



Finally after 1year and 4 months of study preparation I’m sharing my study experience in this group. I was an average student during University and that cost me this long time of preparation, due to my weak basic science bases.
If you are studying for this exam for more than 1 year and feeling exhausted, depressed and stressed for it I can totally understand you but please try to put those feelings aside you and keep pushing yourself toward the end.
STUDY SOURCES:
- Kaplan books (x3 - 1 time only kaplan books along with videos and the other 2 times along with first aid and videos) and videos (x3). Even when some people say this is not important I think they are important for building concepts if you were average student and if you read them more than one time you will realize that many of the things that Kaplan books said is on the explanation of uworld answers.
- Firs Aid (x2 along with kaplan books)
- Question banks: Kaplan (I highly recommend start with kaplan bank before Uworld as the questions are asked in a more difficult way than uworld and this make you think that uworld is way easier than kaplan bank), Uworld (x1 and after that I review the wrong ones but I did not have time to review all of the incorrect ones), USMLE Rx ( I was doing only the difficult ones but I got bored as the questions are made in a very easy way)
- Pathoma book and videos (x3)
- Other sources: High Yield Gross Anatomy (only for pictures and the whole pelvis chapter), Medquest Biostatistics review (videos and some questions from the bank), Uworld biostatistics review, 100 cases from Conrad Fischer.
- Kaplan live lectures and 8 months of my prep was in center but the rest was in my country home.
ASSESSMENTS:
NBME 16 (online): 173 (7 months before my exam)
NBME 17 (online): 175 (5 months before my exam)
NBME 19 (online): 211 ( 1 month and 2 weeks before my exam)
NBME 18 (online): 213 ( 6 days before my exam)
UWAS 1 (online): 232 ( 5 days before my exam and the most predictive for me as the score was the same to the real deal)
UWAS 2 (online): 234 (4 days before my exam)
For the exam I had to travel to a neighbor country as in my country there is no prometric center, so I traveled 2 days before the exam and I was not able to study during that day. The day before the exam I had migraine and I only was able to do 1 the tutorial and one block of the free 120 questions (for me exam style questions was more similar to them than uworld and NBMEs).
Exam day (July 18th, 2018): I was the first person to reach the prometric center and this helped me as I was sited in a corner near the wall with none one going behind me to walk to the exit). I weared pants without pockets and sandals to make shorter the revision each time I went in and out from the testing room and I managed my time 2 blocks - 1 break - 2 blocks - 1 break - 1 block - 1 break - 1 block - 1 break - 1 block. When I did the tutorial I only use 4 minutes of it to test the earphones and the rest of the time was added to my break time.
Exam itself was hard and the questions were very lengthy ( 1 week before the exam I practiced doing 4 block per day and I was able to finich each block 5 minutes before but in the real exam I was rushing because of the time). Exam questions were not similar to uworld nor NBMEs but more similar to the free 120. I think the only way to get them is having clear concepts rather than memorizing uworld and NBME questions.
My score (232) is not one of those fancies 250 or 260 but I still happy with it as it match with the med specialty that I want and I plan to work harder for next exams.
Hope my experience can help to the members of this group and I want to share it with you as I got help when asking questions in this group. Study and keep working hard because it is the only way to success!

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