Ajay kumar USMLE STEP 1- 263

Step 1 Experience
Score: 263
Exam Date: 20th February 2019

Graduate of Dec’17, I started my preparation in somewhat proper way during final year of college. I was done with some of the subjects randomly during my 3rd year, had a pause to the preparation in fourth year since I was out of country for an exchange program for half of the year and had to cover my two semesters in the remaining year after I got back. Did the left over subjects afterwards during the first half of final year which included, biochemistry, pathoma, behavioral sciences and the basic section from Goljan. During the second half of my final year, I started with First Aid. I was done with the general section during that period and then had pause of 3-4 months because of exams and other stuff.
January’18, I started things on a serious note. Jan to April, I did remaining FA, revised some of the sections done previously because the gap during studies makes you forget things so easily. I mainly revisited biochemistry, micro, immuno and cardiovascular system.
- How I did FA?
I kept Kaplan side by side (especially revisited new lectures rather than reading the book) and for pathology part, pathoma as well. Section by section, I revisited Kaplan in this way. For some of the sections, I did Express lectures too especially psychiatry.
- For Biostatistics: I additionally did UW BS Review once before UW and once after UW.
- For Physiology: I did BRS Physio in addition to Kaplan, but I would say Kaplan itself is enough. If you have a hard time learning concepts from Kaplan, then go for BRS. Otherwise, you are good without it too.
- For Patho: I did Goljan basics section, the systemic section was covered during college years. It is an awesome book, but too hard to retain. Pathoma is the must, easy-to-go book.
- When I was revising biochemistry, I did BnB lectures. Amazing concepts, very well explained. Never had a trouble in biochemistry after I listened to BnB. Also used BnB for cardiovascular section too. It was time-consuming though, hence couldn’t do it for other sections.
- For Anatomy: High yield gross Anatomy (Some chapters), Shelf Notes and Kaplan Anatomy. For Neuroanatomy, Kaplan seemed enough.
- For Ethics: 100 cases and UW is more than enough.

Before starting UW, I did Rx QBank randomly just to have an idea of how to solve the questions in an online forum. Did this for a month randomly which was helpful in tackling UW. 10th of May, I started UW 6 month subscription. I was too slow with it; 7 questions per day to 10 and then to 15, eventually reaching 25 maximum and that too at the end. Completed 1st pass in some 5.5 months. After that I did my wrong and marked questions from UW and that’s it. The subscription time was over by 11th of November.
- UW First Pass: 85-86%
- During wrong and marked ones, I had 87-100% in the blocks.
I didn’t buy additional UW subscription and started with assessments. The scores were what I wanted so it kept me going.
- NBME 6 and 7, I did during UW. 7 at 50% UW and then 6 at 80% UW. NBME 11 at completion of UW.
- NBME 7: 21 mistakes, NBME 6: 15-16 mistakes, NBME 11: 14-15 mistakes
- UWSA 1 within 2 weeks of UW completion: 269
- NBME 13, 12 (Offline): 18 and 12 mistakes respectively.
- NBME 15 (Online): 252 (Dec’18)
- NBME 17 (Online): 255 (Dec’18)
- NBME 16 (Online): 246 (Jan’19)
- UWSA 2: 269 (Jan’19)
Booked my exam date after UWSA2. Did NBME 18, 10 days before exam: 261 score and Free 120 5 days before: 88% result.
During this period of assessments, I kept revising FA, had a grip on weak sections depending on the assessment graphs. This is how I covered a 2nd proper read of FA, that too not completely. Along with it, I kept solving questions from MedBullets Prime Activated, they have some really good questions to help you grip on your weak areas. Couldn’t do NBMEs 1-5.

Exam Day and the Day before:
The day before exam, the anxiety level was on its peak. I couldn’t concentrate on studying so ended up closing books by 5 PM and then chilled for a while. Packed my bag with necessary eatables and documentations. And slept by 11 PM. Sleep is the necessary thing, don’t compromise on that. I was able to have good 6-7 hours sleep. Left for prometric at 8 AM, listened to the heart sounds while on the way (this was very helpful to me, tbh) and entered the exam room. I was calm during the whole time, your calmness and relaxed mind is all what is needed, panicking doesn’t help at all. Took break after each block, smaller initial breaks (4-5 minutes) and then a little longer the later ones. 6th block exhausted me completely, after which I took 13 minutes break during which walked in the garden and ate. 7th block was hence manageable.

The exam seemed more like UW and NBMEs, some questions with longer lengths and others with short stems. It was all do-able, not much confusing except a few things (CT Scans, especially). After exam, I stopped thinking about which question being right or wrong. I got busy with pending things but the wait for result in the last week seemed unbearable. But it was all worth-while in the end.

Personal Advice: Your struggle is yours only, you might have a different way of working things out for yourself, you might need more time as compared to your colleagues, and this all is defined by you only. Don’t compare your struggles with someone else, give your best shot as much as you can give, leave the rest on the God. He will always do things in your favor.
Do good and be good – you earn prayers this way which do help you getting more than what you deserve. Good luck. God bless you all! 🙂
- Happy to answer any questions, if you might have. Thanks.