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‎Brian Chen‎ Step 1 --Score 241


Was aiming for 260+ or 250+ but ended up with 241!

Resources used:
kaplan videos and books 3 times
sketchy pharma and micro videos 2 times
sketchy patho (not all) 1 time
High yield book series 1 time
Uworld 4 times (one offline, and 89% correct 1st time)
Kaplan Q bank 1 time
USMLErx 2 times
First aid videos 1 time
FA more than 5 times
BnB videos 2-3 times
Pathoma at least 3 times
sosmosis videos 1 time
physeo videos 1 time
anki ( did zanki and i spent around 400+ hours on zanki deck alone. i did so many other decks like sketchy, micro, uworld, etc) (my correct rate was 98% at the 1st 5 months of preperation)
BRS books series (1 time excpet for physiology which i did > 3 times)
shelf notes anatomy 1 time
ethics 100 cases 1 time
UWSA2 251 3 weeks out
NBME 18 241 4 days out

I am a very hard working student, I am ranked first in my batch with the highest GPA, I get rewards every year from my school, I always get the highest score in my exams and all the doctors are impressed by me in the class and in the hospital. (not bragging but just trying to tell that i am one of those students who work so hard)

SO BY NOW YOU SHOULD BE LIKE WTF! U DID SO MANY RESOURCES AND YOUR SCORE SHOULD BE HIGHER THAN THAT. yup but unfortunately, I got only 241 and here is why:
  1. I planned on taking the exam in December 2018, a month after I finish my 2nd round of uworld online, but the notary cam refused my passport as an ID and I had to find another way to be able to bypass notary cam. that took me around a month in which I lost hope sometimes that I won't be able to do the exam. then things worked out fine and I had to get 183 form signed from the school and I wasted around 2 weeks for that only cuz of the holiday in the country where I live. then I sent 183 form to the ECFMG, I had to wait around 15 days before they rejected it cuz a mistake in the address so I had to get it signed again and send it once again. once I got my scheduling permit I checked the availability in my city, and I couldn't find a seat till March 14th so just booked that.
  2. didn't book the exam earlier. I waited till i finished the second round of uworld and then I decided to book my exam. that was a huge mistake cuz I expected the registration to take a month max but it took way more than that. so I started feeling bored and burnt out. I almost gave up at some points but then my friend kept me motivated during most of that time.
  3. didn't take regular breaks. I kept studying every single day and that was why I felt so bored at the end
Advice to you:
  1. make a plan and try to book the exam early. the best plan is one month after u finish ur 2nd round of uworld
  2. TAKE A DAY OFF every week. I can't emphasis on this point enough. this is what destroyed me I guess. i was really confident at the beginning but then at the end, I started feeling soo bored cuz I had to book the exam in March, 3 months further than I expected.
  3. don't get bothered by the score of ur NBME as long as u trust urself and ur knowledge. I got 241 on my NBME 18 and I got the exact score. but my friend who also got 241 on nbme18 got 256 on the real exam. so, I and my friend got the same score on nbme18 but he scored 256 and I scored 241.


Am I happy with my score?
because I worked my ass off every single day, so I would say no, I am not that happy with it. But alhamdullilah, it is not that bad after all. I am sure God has a plan for me and this score won't stop me from doing great on step 2. I will definitely work SMARTER this time and will try to avoid the stupid mistakes which cost me a lot in this exam.


At the end, I just wanna say sorry for anyone if i let you down and thanks for everyone who remembered me in their prayers before my exam and for everyone who helped me throughout this journey. good luck to you all and God bless you!

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